Work Text:
Yongxian really didn’t mind working at the coffee shop on days like today. It hadn’t ever really gotten too busy; no lunchtime or rush hour influx of customers, just a few folks in and out as they normally would. He hadn’t found a moment where he otherwise felt rushed to be making anything at all yet today, and that made today a pretty good day.
He was cleaning the grounds from the previous espresso shot when he heard the door open, and in walked a young man, probably not too much younger than himself. A lot of folks like him came in, usually students or office workers from the nearby schools or businesses. More office workers than students though.
“Good afternoon, what can I start for you?” Yongxian began as the man approached the counter. The man paused for a few moments, clearly looking at the menu overhead.
“Um… can I get a strawberry latte?” he responded, and Yongxian nodded.
“For here?” Yongxian asked him, and the man nodded.
“Yeah, I’ve got some work to do so I’ll probably hang around for a bit.” Yongxian figured as much from the bag resting on his shoulder, all too full to be reasonably packed with things. But who was he to know, he hadn’t gone to university. Maybe that was a totally normal amount of things to be bringing with you to classes.
“Of course, lots of people come by to do work here. You’ll fit right in,” Yongxian assured him, giving him a friendly sort of smile. “We do free refills here, too. If you want another, all you’ve gotta do is ask. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t think I’ll need it since there isn’t too many people here right now, but what is the name for the order?”
“It’s Hengyu.”
“Hengyu, got it. I’ll bring it out to you, go ahead and get yourself settled.” Yongxian set up the machine for Hengyu to pay and started off to get his drink going. Strawberry lattes were falling out of style a little now that the summer was gone. Pumpkin spice was kind of everything this time of year, and soon enough, it would be gingerbread.
Making coffee was honestly something Yongxian really enjoyed. He liked meeting new people who came in, liked even more to see the regular faces who came in and recognized his face when he was working. He liked being able to talk to people so casually, even if the interactions were relatively short in the grander scheme of things. Truthfully, he’d like to hope he’d possibly made these people’s days a little better, because oftentimes seeing them made his day a little better too.
When he finished up with the espresso and the milk and the strawberry syrup, he brought Hengyu’s drink over to where he’d gotten himself comfortable. Somehow, in the less-than-five- minutes it had taken for Yongxian to put the drink together, Hengyu had practically already buried himself in textbooks and his laptop, typing away at the keyboard.
“Thank you,” Hengyu said softly, before directing his attention right back to his project at hand.
God, it was times like these Yongxian was glad he’d never chosen to go to post-secondary school. Sure, it had made getting a job harder, but there was no way he’d have made it through having to be that locked into researching or writing something like that. Hengyu’s devotion to the task was impressive, to say the least, and Yongxian found himself looking back over at his table when he found the moments to let his eyes stray.
Hengyu was pretty, couldn’t be much taller than Yongxian was himself but it kind of felt like he was. The way his hair fell around his face felt like it framed him so perfectly, and his eyes caught the light in just the right way to almost seem like they were glowing, even with his tired he looked to be.
Yongxian had seen hundreds of people come and go from his shop - hell, that was how he met Guangxu - but not many compared to how pretty Hengyu was without even trying.
“Mind if I trade this out?” Yongxian offered, holding out a freshly made strawberry latte to Hengyu shortly after he noticed the first drink had been finished off.
“Oh, thank you!” Hengyu replied a little too excitedly, and for the first time since meeting Guangxu, Yongxian felt himself a little weak in the knees at another mans smile. Guangxu didn’t pull him in that way, as a matter of fact it was quite the opposite. Guangxu was hot, but Yongxian knew it was over for him when he smiled and now he was somehow cute as well. It honestly wasn’t fair that he could do both so well; Yongxian still didn’t get it.
Eventually, one refill became a second refill, and then a third, and the afternoon turned to evening. And as much as Hengyu seemed to want to keep working, Yongxian figured maybe the better option would be water. He’d be more than willing to give him another refill if he’d wanted one, but he swore he could see Hengyu’s hands shaking from here. That much caffeine with little food otherwise would do that to a man, Yongxian figured.
“Would you like a water?” Yongxian offered, this time longer after the cup had been emptied of its contents. He’d put together a glass of ice water and placed it on the table beside the empty coffee cup. “I’d give you another refill, but I worry the coffee is getting to you without having much food in your system. I don’t mean to overstep and point it out, but I can see your hands are shaking from over by the counter.”
“No it’s okay, you’re probably right,” Hengyu agreed, eyes finally away from the screen and looking at Yongxian, still standing over him. “I think maybe I’m anxious.”
“Anxious? Are you working on an important paper or something?” Yongxian hadn’t meant to spring into a conversation like this, but it felt as natural as the tides coming in. He couldn’t find the way to stop himself, and it wasn’t like it mattered. They weren’t very busy - especially not now that it was getting closer to closing time - so he figured he probably had some time to talk to people and if someone trickled in, he could make his way back over to the counter.
“Yeah, it’s my thesis,” Hengyu told him, before letting out a long sigh and closing his laptop. “I think I might’ve taken on a little too much.”
“I’m no therapist, and I’m mainly good at making coffee, but I’ll admit my interest is piqued. You totally don’t have to tell me, but what is your thesis about?” Yongxian knew he was likely getting into a topic he was going to be entirely clueless about, but he dove into it anyway.
Despite what appeared to be a small amount of hesitancy, Hengyu got into the details of his work, how he was a mature student and a psychology major and in his final year. His thesis was something about early queer liberation movements in the west and their original ideas around same-sex marriage and queer rights. He said more it, but Yongxian wasn’t entirely sure he understood what he was saying.
Regardless, Yongxian listened in, nodded when he felt it was right to or otherwise understood and agreed. Sometimes he didn’t get it, but Hengyu seemed so genuinely interested in the topic that he wasn’t sure he could pull himself away from listening to him speak.
“Would it be weird if I asked you out?” Hengyu finished his ramblings with, and Yongxian wasn’t sure he heard him right. It was such an entire switch in topic, and his hands were shaking even harder than before, even with the water in his system.
“I mean, I’d absolutely agree to go out with you, but I’m realizing you don’t even know my name,” Yongxian told him, followed by a light sort of chuckle. “I’m Yongxian. Maybe it was good I did get your name from the order, Hengyu.”
Yongxian and Guangxu were pretty lax about their relationship, and this kind of thing wouldn’t phase them here or there. They weren’t outright polyamorous, but neither were they outright monogamous and they’d both discussed the possibility of them dating other people rather positively. Their relationship just kind of went with the flow of wherever it directed itself, and that was exactly how they’d wanted it to go. They were perfectly fine if it was just the two of them, but if other people came into the relationship in one way or another, that was perfectly fine as well.
“I saw your name on your nametag, just felt weird to say it out loud without you saying it first,” Hengyu admitted, followed by a small smile. “End of the week sound good? Friday?”
“I can do Friday evening!” The two of them paused for a few moments, and Yongxian looked back at the counter to see if he’d missed anyone coming in. Nope, still empty.
“What time is it going on?” Hengyu questioned. Yongxian looked down at his watch. There wasn’t much more time until they closed.
“7:45,” Yongxian responded.
“Oh my god, you close in like 15 minutes.” Instantly, like a switch had been flipped, Hengyu stood up and started gathering his things, putting them away in his bag as quickly as he could manage to.
“No it’s fine, don’t rush! I still have to tidy up behind the counter and mop and such. If you’re here a few moments after close it isn’t a big deal at all.”
A few more moments passed between the two of them, Hengyu looking at the edge of his closed computer.
“…Do I have time to finish up this one paragraph?”
“You have time to finish three, I’m sure,” Yongxian assured him, placing his hand on Hengyu’s as he stood up, before stepping off to go back behind the counter again to grab a towel and cleaning spray.
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Hengyu didn’t end up staying past closing time, even with his extra writing time. Yongxian didn’t even really need to stay much later than closing time to clean things up. All he really had to do was mop, wipe down the counters, and turn the dishwasher on. The day had been pleasant, easy, and going home with the knowledge of seeing Hengyu again at the end of the week felt like it was a breath of fresh air.
Yongxian always got home before Guangxu did. Guangxu tended to take later postal shifts in the day - ones that ended later than Yongxian’s did - and it gave Yongxian time to get into cozier clothes and consider starting on dinner. He liked the process of cooking, especially on his own. He liked the consistency of it all: the chopping of the vegetables, the boiling of the broth, the mixing of the condiments.
He never got all too far before Guangxu returned home, however, and tonight wasn’t any except to that fact.
“Hi my love~” Guangxu started as he opened the front door, only pausing to unhook his bag from getting stuck on the handle.
“Hey! How was work?” Yongxian called back to him from his spot in the kitchen, still chopping up the last of the vegetables for dinner.
“You know, work was interesting,” Guangxu began, and Yongxian was practically sat and ready for the story. Guangxu’s work stories were good, when he had them. It’d been a while since the last incident happened.
“Oh?”
“Remember me telling you about that guy? The one with the dog?” Yes, Guangxu had gone on tangents about this dog. Yongxian had never seen him, but apparently this dog was the cutest thing Guangxu had ever seen and he just couldn’t get over it. Seeing that dog made every postal run just that much better. He could’ve been having the worst day in the world, but when he got to that guys house with a package and that sweet little dog running out to greet him when the man opened the door to grab the box from him, everything would be just that much better. “He asked me out today.”
“Oh no way, I also got asked out today,” Yongxian replied, not to steal the thunder in any way, simply just as a fact. The two of them didn’t really get moments like this now that they were normal functioning members of society with relatively average jobs. They never really had much to gossip about; Yongxian’s shifts were more often than not solo and Guangxu’s were almost entirely solo. If there was ever anyone to talk about, it was usually just a person in passing or this guy with the dog. “Did you say yes?”
“What are the odds?” Guangxu lightly joked, making his way into the kitchen to join Yongxian in the food prep. “But yeah, I figured why not? I’ll give it a shot. Worst that can happen is the date is bad and then I never have to do it again. And - I don’t know - what if this dog just knows something you both don’t? Like, a secret sixth dog sense about love and compatibility?”
“You’re a dork,” Yongxian teased back to him, chuckling to himself at the stupidity of Guangxu’s thoughts sometimes.
“You love me,” Guangxu insisted, laughing along too.
“I sure do.” The two of them fell into the routine of cooking, of frying, of hugs from behind and stolen neck kisses.
“What about your date? What’s going on there?” Guangxu questioned, realizing he’d forgotten to ask into his boyfriend’s endeavours as well. Yongxian made a noise that almost sounded like a scoff - not in a dissatisfied way, but in an almost confused way - as he started explaining the day. It felt like a movie, Hengyu just showing up like normal, the refills of coffee, the water, the thesis work and how little he managed to understand of it all but how brilliantly smart Hengyu was and how passionate he seemed to be about it all.
“Oh you like this dude,” Guangxu observed, teasingly hypothesizing without even needing much more than Yongxian’s description of the day’s events to know so.
“Shut up~” Yongxian whined, now pouting at him. This happened a lot, Guangxu was absolutely one to playfully tease but he never got far because he just couldn’t get by Yongxian pouting at him. Somehow, Yongxian was always too cute for Guangxu to put up a fight.
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Hengyu had no idea when he fell asleep that night, he just knew it had to have been late. He woke up with his laptop still open, screen off, to Wooyu brushing her cold nose against his hand, dangling off the couch absentmindedly. She must’ve assumed it was time for breakfast; Hengyu had no idea what time it was but it very well could have been.
This couch was not meant for sleeping on, but Hengyu had fallen asleep here all too many times. His neck was sore again, and his back felt just a little bit out of place from the clearly-abnormal way he’d managed to fall asleep here.
He was supposed to have a lecture this morning, but when he checked the time, he realized that absolutely wasn’t happening.
Really, Hengyu had meant for none of this to happen. He’d hoped to set an alarm, make himself a cup of tea, and snuggle up into bed for a good night’s rest, but here he was on the couch again, clearly stuck behind unfinished work.
Distantly, someone had to be making breakfast. Hengyu could trace the smell of bacon from somewhere else in the complex, he assumed one of his neighbours. If only he’d had the time for bacon and eggs on a day like today.
Last night’s nausea started to find its place in his throat again as he opened his mouth to greet Wooyu, still at his hand.
“Morning, Wooyu. Sorry I fell asleep out here again. I know this is your spot,” he apologized, voice coming out groggy and crackly, dry from not having drank enough water to compensate for the amount of coffee he’d been taking in.
Wooyu likely knew no better of where she slept, or cared no more about such a tiny thing. She always looked happy, pleasant, and was always easy to be around even when Hengyu was feeling too tired to do anything or see anyone else. He almost kind of envied her, in a way. To be so approachable, to feel so happy all of the time, what a dream it was.
For a moment, Hengyu allowed himself to sink into the fibres of the couch, closing his eyes again as the material welcomed him in, even though he was sitting up now. He wasn’t going to go back to sleep, but if he was any more comfortable or had any more time, he surely would’ve tried to.
Not that he wanted to move from this very spot on the couch, but Hengyu knew he’d need some pain meds to actually get himself together and start the day. There weren’t many left - another expense to add to the grocery list - but he’d be fine for today.
Nothing like starting the morning with two ibuprofen and a cup of black coffee. Truthfully, Hengyu hated black coffee, but he never found the time or motivation to make himself anything else. The purpose of it was not to taste good: it was to keep him awake. The day would go by slowly, and he knew he’d need it before it was time for his second lecture of the day (or first, seeing as he missed his first lecture).
Everything else about the morning was the same as it always was. He threw a coat over his pajama shirt to take Wooyu out on a walk, he fed her when he got back in, he briefly contemplated making breakfast but decided against it, and ended up at his desk writing again now on his second cup of coffee.
Coffee made his hands shake, or at least he knew that was a thing caffeine does. He figured that was why his hands were shaking as often as they were, not the feelings of anxiety creeping up his spine every moment he opened a new research paper and started to read again.
It wasn’t the work that made him so nervous. He actually didn’t really know what it was at all that had him like this, he just… was like this for some reason. He always had been, for so long that the quivering fingers and messy typing as a result were just normal parts of the writing process he’d have to pay extra attention to later on to make sure he hadn’t screwed up the typing anywhere.
Eventually, his brain wandered to the idea of going back to a coffee shop to work. He didn’t like working in his apartment - it made him feel like he was stuck - and at least being in another space felt like it was new and refreshing.
Or maybe he was trying to justify seeing Yongxian again, or at least hoping he’d be working the morning shift today as well.
Asking Yongxian out had kind of came to him by accident. Hengyu wasn’t the most social guy, and he didn’t really have many consistent friends other than the ones back in his home town. Most of his classmates didn’t share any interests with him, let alone about his thesis, which, as much as it terrified him to be writing it, he did really enjoy doing. Yongxian wasn’t like that, Yongxian really seemed to care about his work and sure, maybe he was just putting up an act for the commercial value of good customer service, but he wouldn’t have agreed to go out with him if it was just good customer service, would he have?
And, well, Hengyu asking Guangxu out was also an accident, but in a different way.
----------------------------
Yongxian and Hengyu had agreed to a picnic for their first date. It felt lowkey enough for neither of them to be overly anxious or pressured to any one thing, and it gave them people to watch if there were pauses in the conversation. Foolproof, no such thing as an awkward moment when you’re out in a park snacking and having a wholesome good time.
Yongxian promised he’d put together the snacks, nothing Hengyu needed to do other than show up with his pretty little self. And that he did; he hadn’t dressed up all too fancy but it definitely looked more so than when he came to the cafe to study. He didn’t have to dress up, it was just the park after all. If anything, Yongxian would’ve rather he be warm than fancily-dressed.
“Hi,” Hengyu started, a little out of breath from the walk down. Yongxian hadn’t gotten there much earlier than Hengyu did, only with enough time to set up the blanket and start taking snacks out. “I brought some tea, I hope you don’t mind barley. It felt like the most warming one that I had.”
“Oh you didn’t have to do that!” Yongxian responded, a smile on his face. Hengyu had such a way of being so nonchalantly endearing that Yongxian wasn’t even sure he could tell he was that way. Being endearing seemed to come naturally to Hengyu, or at the least, accidentally. “But thank you! It is a little cooler out today than I expected it to be.”
Hengyu sat down on the blanket, opening his tote bag to pull out two small reusable to-go mugs, presumably full of tea, and placed one in front of where Yongxian had sat down. “Hopefully it’s still warm. It was a bit of a trek to bus down here.”
“I could’ve picked you up!” Yongxian retaliated, but Hengyu just shook his head. He didn’t want to worry about inconveniencing Yongxian in any way; he could take the bus just fine, it would just be a longer ride than he usually took on it.
“No no it’s okay, I made it. I didn’t mean to sound like I was complaining.” Hengyu didn’t sound like he was complaining, at least not to Yongxian. It was just kind of how things were. Yongxian had taken the bus around in high school and he knew it wasn’t the best.
“At least let me drive you back to your place then after we’re done.”
“You really don’t-”
“I insist, Hengyu. It’s really not a problem at all,” Yongxian interrupted, somewhat unintentionally but it had its point. He didn’t mind driving people places, especially if it made things easier for them. Sometimes he drove Guangxu places just for the fun of driving people places, and it worked out because Guangxu admittedly didn’t love driving so he got his moments to be the passenger princess.
And Hengyu seemed to accept that, laying down on the blanket and looking up at the sky above them.
The two of them talked, about little things, about Hengyu’s schooling, about Yongxian’s cafe job, about the sky and the clouds, about their families. Hengyu told Yongxian all about his favourite video games and Yongxian taught him about his favourite things to cook and bake, and both of them promised each other with a childhood excitement to teach each other how to do such things.
But eventually, their words wore down, and the two of them were just looking up at the clouds. Occasionally, Yongxian would point out one of them that looked like something specific - a tree, a cat, a pineapple, a scooter - and Hengyu would somewhat sleepily giggle to himself as he looked up and tried to see it too.
The silence never felt like it was awkward: it only ever felt like a pause to drink tea or look for another shape in the sky.
“Hey, you haven’t really eaten anything. Are you not hungry?” Yongxian observed at one point, when he got up to grab himself a handful of chips. He wasn’t exaggerating: Hengyu hadn’t touched anything he’d brought for the two of them, and he wasn’t really offended by it, just confused. “I probably should’ve asked you what your favourite snacks were. I had to guess.”
Yongxian looked at Hengyu’s hands (not the first time he had that day) and he noticed they were shaking again, so he reached over to hold one of them.
“Hengyu, you’re shaking again. Is something wrong?” Yongxian asked, figuring Hengyu didn’t really have an answer for his previous question. Maybe he didn’t want to hurt his feelings? Maybe he had a dietary restriction of some sort, maybe he was gluten intolerant or maybe he was a vegetarian?
“I-” he started - or more so stuttered - out, starting to fidget with Yongxian’s fingers a little bit. “I think it’s just getting a little too noisy here for me.” It was noisier than when they’d got there. School had likely let out in the time they had been there, and what had once been a mostly-empty playground now was packed with kids.
“Should we pack our things up? We could go for a little walk through the woods; it’ll surely be quieter there,” Yongxian offered, finally sitting up and stretching his arms into the air.
“Yeah, that sounds nice.” The two of them started packing their things up again, Yongxian leaving the snacks toward the top of the bag in case either of them got a little snacky on the walk.
Hengyu silently offered Yongxian his hand as they started to walk toward the trail’s entrance, and with a smile, Yongxian just couldn’t say no.
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Hengyu started coming by the coffee shop a little more frequently now that he’d gone out with Yongxian and it had gone well. They’d probably say they were seeing each other, maybe not boyfriends because they hadn’t outright discussed that, but they were definitely seeing each other. Hengyu got just a little bolder every time he came in, never too far, but Yongxian knew he was trying to be a little tempting, even if it often came out kind of awkwardly. He was awkward and still pretty shy at times, but he was cute. Him being around the cafe made Yongxian’s days feel like they went by a little quicker. Maybe Hengyu had special powers or something like that, something that could make time go faster than it was supposed to.
On the topic of dates, Guangxu’s date over the weekend had also gone really well, and he came home with leftovers from dinner so that meant it went well for Yongxian too. The moment those leftovers entered the house, they were his.
Yongxian turned to look when he heard the door open, ready to go back into official work mode, and in walked Guangxu in his silly little portal worker uniform. He didn’t stop by often when he was on the clock - must’ve found a gap in his delivery schedule - but Yongxian was always glad to have him back in and cover his drink. It was only a matter of time before Hengyu got added to the same ‘you’re not paying for that’ list he’d created in his mind. Well, it wasn’t much of a list; currently, only Guangxu was on it.
The timing was a little awkward: Hengyu and Yongxian had been rather engaged in conversation, Hengyu leaning against the counter in a way no one could miss as being flirtatious.
“Hi my love!” Yongxian started as he made his way over to the counter.
“Hey, figured I’d stop in while I have a few moments and get a dose of something to pick me up,” Guangxu replied, before turning to look over at Hengyu, who had very clearly readjusted his posture to look a whole lot more normal in the time Yongxian and Guangxu had greeted each other. “Seems it’s a double today. Good to see you here as well, Hengyu.”
Yongxian shot a look at his boyfriend, then at Hengyu, then back at his boyfriend, and back at Hengyu again, extremely confused as to what was going on here.
“You two know each other?” he asked, still kind of looking back and forth between the two of them.
“You know Guangxu as well?” Hengyu questioned back, almost at the same time. Clearly, the answer to both of those questions was yes.
“I feel like we’ve missed a few steps here and that’s clearly my bad,” Yongxian began, going on to lay out what the situation currently was. “Guangxu is my boyfriend, but we kind of date around. And he told me he got asked out last week but I didn’t know you were the one who asked him out. What a weird coincidence this is.”
Hengyu scratched at the back of his neck a bit, now avoiding looking at both of them as he spoke.
“Well, this feels awkward,” Hengyu observed, filling a silence that really hadn’t been there for long enough to need to be filled.
“Eh, I like him, I like you. Doesn’t have to be weird if we don’t make it weird,” Guangxu pointed out, and he did have a point. Hengyu didn’t have to date the both of them, but he was entirely more than welcome to and it wouldn’t interfere with anything they already had going on.
“I suppose that’s the spirit,” Yongxian agreed, leaning over the counter. “Iced or hot coffee today?”
Yongxian knew Guangxu’s coffee order, both iced and hot, because it was different based on how it was served. He’d drink iced coffee with just milk, but hot coffee needed sugar too.
“I think hot, feel my hands.” Guangxu reached his hand over the counter and Yongxian took it in both of his own hands. His hands were frigid.
“You got it.” Yongxian turned to start on his boyfriend’s coffee. “You know, figures the two of us would be into the same guy.”
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Hengyu’s apartment wasn’t exactly messy, but having a couple extra willing hands around to help tidy on occasion was more than welcome, and the company even more so. Sometimes he was just too busy or just too sad to get all of the chores done, and in living alone, who else would be doing them? Yongxian didn’t mind making a meal and Guangxu didn’t mind helping with the cleaning, nor did any of them mind the company, so it was a win all around.
He didn’t like inviting them over just for them to clean, so he promised video games and the boys just kind of started helping tidy when Hengyu started to do so himself. They didn’t feel like they had to, they just wanted to make Hengyu’s job a little easier on him.
It kind of felt like an argument at first. Yongxian asking if they can cook for Hengyu, Hengyu telling them they didn’t have to and that being there was enough, Yongxian insisting that he likes cooking if Hengyu is comfortable with him using his kitchen. And eventually they got there, Hengyu couldn’t really say no to a home cooked meal, even if he did feel a little bad about it.
Hengyu bounced back and forth between cleaning and the other two giving him attention. Short kisses, back hugs, pats basically anywhere they could justify patting. And Hengyu really enjoyed it. It felt like a little much a times, a little overwhelming to have two separate people all over him like this, but it was nice.
“Hey Hengyu, where do you typically keep these?” Guangxu questioned, holding up a pill bottle so Hengyu could see what he was talking about. He didn’t know what it was for, nor was it his business to ask, but they were clearly pretty important to be kept so close to the bed. Or maybe they’d just ended up there and there was a spot they belonged in.
“You can just… keep those where they are. They’re pretty important,” Hengyu responded before taking the bottle from Guangxu’s hands, almost harshly, as if he didn’t want either of them to know they existed. He seemed to consider its placement for the briefest of seconds before he shoved it into his bedside drawer. He didn’t need Yongxian knowing as well.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to overstep, that probably wasn’t something I should’ve touched. I’m sorry. I’ll pretend I never saw them, I promise,” Guangxu assured him, realizing that probably wasn’t his best decision. He didn’t mean to be nosy, just figured this was another thing that Hengyu didn’t mean to have out.
No matter how hard he tried, Hengyu could never manage to sleep well. The last time he had was… well… he wasn’t honestly too sure when the last time he’d slept well was. Yongxian had figured such a thing from how late he’d been texting them lately, but he really had no idea the extent of it. And it wasn’t like Yongxian and Guangxu weren’t late to rest either, but he definitely wasn’t as sleep deprived as Hengyu seemed to be.
“I-they’re…” Hengyu seemed like he wanted to say it, but he almost didn’t seem to know how. It surely wasn’t that bad, but Guangxu understood being embarrassed if they were for something he didn’t want to talk about. He and Hengyu didn’t know each other that well yet, after all, so he couldn’t blame him for not wanting him to know. “Sleeping meds.”
“Have you not been sleeping well lately?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever slept well,” Hengyu admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “Sometimes it’s just one night that’s rough, other times it’s closer to a week. I get bits and pieces of sleep, I guess? It’s fine until there’s an emergency, but that’s only a matter of time around here.”
Hengyu didn’t really know what it was about the sirens, but they scared him. It wasn’t a startling kind of scare, but a deep, to the core type of fear he couldn’t otherwise explain. Being so close to downtown got Hengyu pretty well anywhere he would need to go, but it also meant he was near constantly surrounded with paralyzing noise. Yongxian and Guangxu lived a little further out so it wasn’t as common around them, but Hengyu…
“Jeez Hengyu… I’m so sorry…” Guangxu wasn’t sure he really understood the pain Hengyu had been feeling, especially after all of this time being spent alone. The battle Hengyu must’ve been fighting every night he tried to lay down and rest had to have been atrocious. He wasn’t sure, even if he could understand it, how much he’d ever really be able to understand.
“It’s okay, I’ve been trying to get better about it,” Hengyu tried to assure him, and Guangxu nodded slightly before the silence came in.
“Hey you two, dinner’s ready!” Yongxian yelled from his place over in the kitchen, and without either of them saying it, they were both glad he had.
The three of them ate dinner over small conversations, Guangxu telling them the mailman drama he had (not a lot), Hengyu updating them on his thesis, Yongxian discussing upcoming holiday drink specials (even though it was two months out).
And over the rest of the evening, they’d learned three major things about the three of them:
-
Guangxu is horrible at racing games,
-
Yongxian is competitive, and
-
Hengyu is even more competitive, only amplified by being in the presence of another competitive person.
Guangxu wasn’t even sure he’d gotten the controls down by the time he was so horribly losing that Hengyu and Yongxian had lapped him.
“We should probably head home soon, no? It’s getting dark and I don’t wanna keep you up too late,” Yongxian suggested, putting the controller down as they finished up another race and he’d caught a glimpse of how dark it had gotten.
“Or, well, you could both stay a little longer if you’d like,” Hengyu offered, leaning over a little to rest his head against Guangxu’s arm. He couldn’t say he wasn’t tired, because he was, but he also couldn’t say he wanted the two of them to leave.
“No, Yongxian’s right. You should definitely get some rest,” Guangxu insisted, patting Hengyu on the thigh as he stood up. Hengyu looked up at him from where he still sat on the couch - a look in his eyes neither of them had seen before - and Yongxian started putting the pieces together.
“I don’t think I want to sleep just yet, if you get me,” Hengyu responded, reaching out to Guangxu and pulling him back to the couch by his wrist.
This was the thing that Yongxian and Guangxu possibly found cutest about Hengyu: he was always so shy to bring anything up, but always the one pushing through it to initiate things. He’d asked both Yongxian and Guangxu out, and now he was asking to have sex with the two of them, despite being so shy to do both of those things. Yongxian and Guangxu were never that shy, but Hengyu was always the one pushing through the shyness to say what he really wanted.
It was honestly pretty admirable.
And how could either of them deny him when he was capable of giving them looks like he just had?
----------------------------
Hengyu would’ve gotten on his knees if Yongxian and Guangxu had asked him to. It felt like forever since he’d last had sex with someone, let alone sex he wanted to be having. He’d never had sex with two people at once though, so this was bound to be a somewhat more complicated experience than his last time had been.
Yongxian was more than willing to let Hengyu naturally assume whatever role he wanted to. Him and Guangxu switched pretty often, so regardless of what role Hengyu played in the bedroom, the other two could work with that.
“Are you more of a top or a bottom?” Hengyu asked, more so in the direction of Yongxian than Guangxu, the words light and sounding a little awkward stumbling off of his lips. Yongxian had grown to find it cute when Hengyu had to say such forward things, because he said them with such a conviction that sounded like they weren’t things he was all too familiar with saying.
“I can do whatever,” Yongxian offered to him. “What do you want?
“Go on baby, tell him,” Guangxu jumped in, his words directed toward Hengyu in a way that made his hands feel a little fuzzy. That was Guangxu’s specialty: a lightly condescending tone that made you feel like he didn’t believe you’d respond at all.
Hengyu took a deep breath in to try not to stutter his words out.
“Want you to use me.” Hengyu looked too angelic to be saying such crass things. It almost made him more attractive. “Tell me what you want me to do with my body to make you feel good. I want you to be the first priority. I come second.”
This was a kind of headspace Yongxian got into himself every now and again. Not often - Guangxu didn’t often feed into it - but Yongxian figured this wasn’t going where he expected it to be.
This however, lined up perfectly with Guangxu: two pleasure tops and one willing bottom who would take anything they gave to him. He placed a finger underneath Hengyu’s chin to tilt his head up a little, forcing eye contact from him.
“Oh Hengyu… you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into…” Guangxu commented, a slight smirk on his face. “You’re in for quite the treat.”
Hengyu’s lips parted to make a small sort of noise, pitifully rolling his hips down against the bedsheets underneath of him.
By that point, Yongxian was gone, far too much so to playfully fight back or be a brat like he usually would, all he wanted now was to be full and Hengyu and Guangxu were taking their sweet time in getting to that point.
Hengyu’s hands wandered Yongxian’s body, a little more hesitantly, but in a way that was absolutely torturous. He largely focused on Yongxian's chest - still clothed, even - watching him squirm underneath him as he flicked a finger back and forth.
And Guangxu’s hands, from behind him, found their way under the waistband of Hengyu’s jeans. His skin was soft, felt like Guangxu would break him if he wasn’t careful enough when he touched him.
He didn’t spend much time on the pursuit though before he resorted to taking Hengyu’s jeans off entirely, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t take a few moments just to stare at him, on his knees, waiting to be told what to do next. He’d never get over how pretty Hengyu looked like that, so subservient that he’d listen without question at all.
“Do you have-“ Guangxu started to ask, a little out of breath from kissing Hengyu’s neck.
“I got it,” Hengyu interrupted, though neither him nor Yongxian imagined he could’ve known what they were asking him for. But neither had the time to continue before he was up and off to the bathroom, accompanied by sounds of rustling through a drawer.
He returned rather quickly with a box of condoms and a small, just over half full bottle of lube, and the three of them added their clothes to a small pile on the floor. Guangxu, selfishly, took the moment to look again, not just at Hengyu this time, but at Yongxian as well, the two of them on the bed, Hengyu rolling his hips down again in a desperate plea for more. He’d never ask for it. Someone would have to tell him.
“How about this, I’ll give you two options. Option one is that you can fuck Yongxian and he’ll take me in his mouth. Or, option two is that you can fuck Yongxian and I can fuck you,” Guangxu proposed. Yongxian’s answer didn’t even really matter; he’d take up either option in a heartbeat and Guangxu knew it. It was Hengyu who wanted to please, and it was their first time together like this, all three of them, so he wanted it to be good for him.
“I wanna hear him clearly,” Hengyu answered, not really picking one or the other necessarily. “Wanna hear both of you.”
Oh, he would.
Hengyu felt like he could fall apart right then and there, Yongxian below him, eyes wide like they were. Hengyu wasn’t exactly dominant in situations like this, but to be in the middle of Yongxian who looked like he’d beg Hengyu to touch him, and Guangxu who looked like he’d make Hengyu beg to touch him, was enough to make his head feel fuzzy with desire and lack of thought. Each touch either of them laid on him, each kiss down his collarbones and back up his neck felt like something better than heaven.
Hengyu approached the act with an amount of caution, taking a bit of the lube onto his fingers and pressing them into Yongxian like he might break him if he moved too quickly. Yongxian didn’t care. God, he was long beyond caring at this point, he’d take anything he was given, regardless of how much it stung for the first couple of moments.
It didn’t take long for Yongxian to be taking Hengyu’s fingers like it was nothing, and Hengyu knew he couldn’t hold back from giving him more. And he didn’t, taking his movements slowly to give Yongxian exactly what he needed to feel full. Yongxian let out a long breath, maybe a sigh as Hengyu started to roll his hips again, this time the feeling being met with every single thing he’d wanted it to.
“That’s it,” Hengyu commented, his words coming out a little darker sounding than they had previously. He didn’t know where that sort of tone came from, but Yongxian responded quite positively to it.
Hengyu took it easy on him for a few minutes, kissing down his neck, while Guangxu returned the favour with touches along Hengyu’s chest and hips, digging his fingers into his waist to guide his movements to be longer and more shallow.
“Hengyu, Hengyu, Gyu…” Yongxian repeated it like he had anywhere it was going, like the more he said it, the more it would mean to him.
“Feel good having Hengyu fuck you like that?” Guangxu leaned in to ask, words hushed and raspy as if they were some version of a taunt. It felt like one, Hengyu took it like one.
Yongxian nodded his head rather incessantly
“You should slow down even more, Baby. Give him something to beg for.” Guangxu’s words were even quieter now, these ones clearly only meant for Hengyu to hear, and they were mean. But Hengyu couldn’t deny his curiosity behind it. He’d never had someone beg for him before.
And so he listened, slowed his movements down to not much more than occasional and Yongxian looked up at him like he might just cry.
“Ah…ah… Hengyu~” Yongxian whined, eyes wide and meeting Hengyu’s with an incessant look Hengyu had never really seen someone give him before. It felt like it ignited something in him, a feeling he’d never felt before, and he wanted nothing more to give in and just let Yongxian have it, but it was almost too fun to keep him pleading for him like this. “Need you more… need more… please Hengyu I need it.”
Yongxian instantly went to begging, intermittently interrupted by a small whimper or a moan when Hengyu did give in a little (he couldn’t help himself from being a little sharper sometimes, his body needed it just as bad as Yongxian’s did, he was just trying harder to maintain self control). He didn’t even need to be asked. “God, please… just take me, I’ll take it so well I’ll be so good.”
While Hengyu tended to Yongxian’s pleas (or, better worded, tried not to tear him apart in a moment's notice because of how well he sold his case) Guangxu got himself ready, slowly pressing against Hengyu for him to take him as well. He’d been working at Hengyu the entire time, rather haphazardly but definitely still so, but he couldn’t wait much longer.
And when he pushed into him, Hengyu couldn’t keep himself from pushing particularly sharply into Yongxian as well, continuing the line of motion forward, resulting in somewhat of a yelp. Guangxu effectively had gained control over Hengyu’s pace entirely through the grip he had on his waist. It was almost like Guangxu was using Hengyu to fuck Yongxian, which… Hengyu hadn’t thought about it that much but he really, really enjoyed that idea.
“Oh god, thank you, thank you…” Yongxian sighed out, unsure of who he was even thanking.
Hengyu’s hands rather messily found Yongxian’s cock at one point, no coordination in how he went about touching it, just that he was. Guangxu noticed rather quickly, and brought his own hand over, placing it on top of Hengyu’s, almost as a means of guiding him.
“Like this,” Guangxu said softly, moving Hengyu’s hand for him. “He likes it like this.”
Hengyu wasn’t going to admit it, but he found the help kind of hot. Being in the place of which he was was distracting to say the least, and hearing Guangxu behind him whisper the dirtiest things into his ear and Yongxian in front of him making the filthiest of noises was no help either.
“Can you handle more, Baby?” Hengyu asked, that darkness from before entirely gone and replaced with a lightheaded sort of concern. He did feel a little dizzy, but he figured it came from the feeling of being used by two people instead of one, and he did kind of like it. Yongxian never responded to confirm or deny it, but the noises he made when Hengyu started to move his hips faster was enough to answer the question on its own. There was no rhythm to it - the lightheaded feeling got in the way of that - and he was getting too close to keep anything consistent.
Guangxu kept his grip on Hengyu’s waist firm, not tight. He wanted him to feel secure there.
“There… yeah right there,” Hengyu whined, another change in tone. He’d tried to keep himself composed, but he was getting close too and he couldn’t really do that anymore. Guangxu had a way of commanding him around and working his hips that had a way of captivating his every thought and taking it over.
It was exactly what Hengyu had wanted.
“Think I’m gonna, think I’m gonna...” Hengyu couldn’t get the words out, but Guangxu knew what he was trying to say.
“Go on, angel. Finish for the both of us.” Guangxu fucked him through it, albeit slower than he had been, while Yongxian followed through as well. The two of their noises combined together into something so sickeningly attractive that Guangxu didn’t know how to control himself otherwise.
“Almost there Baby, I know, I know it’s a lot, you can take it,” Guangxu cooed at him, his grip on Hengyu’s waist getting tighter the closer he got. “That’s it, that’s it… fuck… just a few more…”
“Dizzy…” Hengyu mumbled, and Guangxu nodded, readjusting so his arm was wrapped around Hengyu’s chest, holding him against his own body. “Feels so good to be used like this…”
“I know Baby, oh god-“ Hengyu was a mess of whimpers underneath of him, Yongxian having slipped away to watch Guangxu use Hengyu like he wanted him to.
And Guangxu finished too, the final of the three of them.
“God, you were both so good. You both did so good,” Guangxu immediately began to praise. Hengyu’s face looked a little pale, and Guangxu guided him to lay down beside them.
“Feeling kind of faint…” Hengyu trailed off. “But so good…”
“You okay? Should I grab you something?” Yongxian wasn’t so sure, Hengyu did look pretty pale all of a sudden. Maybe he was just feeling a little tired, that was quite a bit of a workout for someone who may not be as used to such a thing.
“Maybe some juice. Probably something about blood sugar, heavy breathing, I don’t know how biology works with that kinda thing but...” Hengyu tried to explain it away, but he didn’t get far before Guangxu slipped over to let him rest his head on his chest, able to hold him a little easier in case anything did happen.
“Yeah of course, I’m on it.” Yongxian didn’t know where he was going to find juice, but he’d figure it out.
----------------------------
At some point in the middle of the night Yongxian hadn’t woken up for, Hengyu must’ve gotten out of bed and grabbed him a proper pillow and a couple of blankets to make his sleep a little more comfortable. He probably could’ve slept in the same bed as the two of them, but Hengyu wanted someone to cuddle with and Yongxian had already been asleep, so Guangxu took the opportunity and ran. Yongxian probably would’ve been better to cuddle, but waking him up felt wrong and three people in Hengyu’s single bed felt kind of squishy.
Next time they were over, it was Yongxian’s turn to snuggle.
“Ah, good morning~ Sleep good?” Hengyu asked, stepping out of his bedroom and rubbing his eyes as they adjusted to the light. The honest answer should’ve been no, but somehow, Yongxian had slept surprisingly well. The couch was horribly uncomfortable, but he didn’t expect it to be comfortable. It was a couch, sleeping on the couch is typically punishment for the one who did something wrong; it wasn’t exactly supposed to be nice. But Hengyu’s bed definitely could not fit three people. Hell, it could barely fit two.
“Somewhat, neck kills though,” Yongxian answered, sitting up to stretch his neck somewhat. All it gave him was an excuse to groan at the pain. “Thank you for bringing me out a pillow. Is Guangxu still asleep?”
“Yeah, do you want some pain meds or something? I probably have a couple left.” Hengyu had worded the question as such - a question - but before Yongxian could answer, he was already looking through the cupboard of medication for where his ibuprofen went.
“God, I’d love that.” Yongxian forced himself to sit up a bit more, stretching his arms into the air with a similarly exaggerated groan.
“Anything else? A cup of coffee?”
“Only if you’re already brewing some.” Hengyu wasn’t exactly, but he figured Guangxu probably would want some when he woke up as well, so he might as well start. Work could happen later, he had company right now and he rather liked that fact. And anyways, if Yongxian didn’t want any coffee, he would’ve outright said no, so Hengyu knew he should make some. He could just coincidentally be brewing some anyway.
“I’m sorry about last night,” Hengyu began, eyes affixed on the coffee grounds as he measured out the right amount to make four or so cups of coffee (one for each of them, and a bit extra in case someone wanted a second cup). He almost hoped Yongxian wouldn’t have heard him at all and he wouldn’t have to further that statement.
“Hmm?” Yongxian’s noise of concern was transformed into a yawn, louder than the original hum.
“Sorry, the coffee is on,” Hengyu repeated, as if that was what he’d said before at all. Yongxian didn’t know any better, it was fine.
The small ruckus must’ve woken Guangxu up, or maybe it was Hengyu leaving bed that startled him from sleep, but he was awake now.
“I heard coffee?” Guangxu stretched his arms into the air, bending backward a little bit to push the stretch further.
“You heard right,” Hengyu responded, stepping away from the coffee maker to sit down at the table instead. It’d been a while since he’d sat at this table; it felt like it held far too many memories of studying and working that it often didn’t feel welcoming, but right now, for some reason, it did. “Sleep well?”
“Ya know, honestly yeah. What about you?” Guangxu asked him back, only realizing moments after that it probably wasn’t the best question to have asked, given their discussion the night prior.
“Actually, I really slept good last night,” Hengyu answered, and Guangxu wondered for a few moments if that was a lie. Yongxian still didn’t know about the sleeping meds; maybe Hengyu didn’t want him to know.
Or maybe, just maybe, he actually had slept well.
Wherever their conversation was going was interrupted by the beeping of the coffee maker, and Hengyu punctuating it with, “Coffee is good to go.”
Hengyu poured out coffee for the three of them, each of them adding sugar and milk as they saw fit, and they sat over their coffees in relative silence for a few moments.
“Hey, this coffee is really good. Where do you get it from?” Guangxu questioned, taking another sip when his words finished.
“It’s just the regular stuff from the grocery store down the street. Nothing special or fancy, sorry,” Hengyu responded, shrugging his shoulders a little as he pressed his lips together. He couldn’t really afford anything better, and it didn’t have to be amazing quality. It just had to be drinkable.
“What are you apologizing for? It’s good!”
The three of them breathed in the cool morning air from Hengyu’s open sliding door. Yongxian and Guangxu often forgot to open the windows overnight; they made a note to do it more often. It made mornings feel just that much more inviting, even if it made them want to stay under the blankets for a little longer. The breeze blew the curtains into the air, and Wooyu made herself comfortable in the ray of sunshine peering in around the edges of it. It was one of the only sounds left in the room, accompanied by the eventual placing down and picking up of mugs on the coffee table.
----------------------------
Hengyu had just about had enough of waiting.
Yongxian and Guangxu were nice, incredibly so, almost too much so sometimes. And he’d had enough of waiting for the proverbial other foot to drop. He knew it was coming - it always did - Yongxian and Guangxu must’ve just been stringing him along a little longer for the fun of it.
So, the next time Hengyu went to pick his phone up to send one of them a message, he instead turned the screen back off and put it back down on the bed beside him.
“Another day, maybe,” he mumbled to himself.
A few days went by, no Hengyu, no Yongxian, no Guangxu, no nothing. The line was dead, and Hengyu knew then that he had to have been right. The other foot was that they don’t care to reach out to him.
He’d done the right thing, his gut had told him so.
Now all he had to deal with was the aftermath, which was… well, not much better than being rejected outright. But Hengyu knew it was better to break his own heart than have someone else do it, so at least he still had control over the situation.
Yongxian and Guangxu were worried by about day three of not hearing from Hengyu at all. Being entirely honest, the two of them really liked Hengyu, but they understood if dating two people at once was too much for a given person and he needed a bit of space. It probably was quite overwhelming; they didn’t know for sure but they could assume such a thing to be true.
Maybe he didn’t like them?
So Yongxian decided to do it.
hey, hengyu? everything been okay? haven’t heard from you in a few days
Hengyu’s attention went to the glow from his phone the moment the text came in, followed by a second one.
guangxu and i are worried about you
it’s okay if you don’t wanna be with us,or just wanna be with guangxu or me separately, i’d just rather you say that instead of leaving us in the dark, yeah?
Hengyu didn’t want to leave them in the dark, that was the thing. He really liked seeing Yongxian and Guangxu, and he wanted to continue doing so, but somewhere in his mind, he knew it wasn’t going to happen. He feared, just like the last ones had, they’d hurt him too, and he still wasn’t over the last ones just yet.
Hengyu took a deep breath in and picked his phone up.
yeah, i’m sorry
it’s not that i just
i don’t know how to say it
do you mind if i come by? or if we met somewhere?
Yongxian would never have denied Hengyu that.
Hengyu ended up coming by later in the day. Yongxian briefly considering going out to a coffee shop or something like that, but this felt like a big thing to Hengyu and he worried about him getting emotional. He didn’t want Hengyu to feel embarrassed for feeling however he was feeling, and maybe Yongxian and Guangxu’s place could feel like a makeshift form of home enough to make him feel safe.
The first few moments were awkward with Guangxu sitting on a dining room chair, and Yongxian and Hengyu sitting on polar opposites of the couch. They didn’t look at each other past when they had to, and Hengyu looked like he could throw up. Yongxian noticed his hands shaking again - maybe it had been nerves the entire time -
“What’s been going on, Hengyu?” Guangxu finally initiated, his voice lightly carrying through the air, almost like birdsong. He’d meant for it to be that way, to float like it did. He spoke to Yongxian like that when he was upset, too. It was how he comforted people.
Hengyu looked down at the floor, or his knees, anything that wasn’t Guangxu or Yongxian, and he took a few (seemingly regulatory) breaths.
“I don’t know, I’ve only gone out with each of you once and I do really like the both of you and I think I got a little ahead of myself but being able to be held for once was so nice that I think my body just took it and ran and I don’t want it to sound like I didn’t enjoy it because I did and I’d do it again but I don’t want you to think I’m just a desperate loser who sleeps with anyone who shows him an ounce of care, like I do really like the both of you and I want to keep seeing you both and-” Hengyu immediately began to ramble, like the floodgates had been opened and now he just couldn’t keep anything back. His words all fell out like they were one horribly long sentence that had just been growing and growing and growing in his mind.
He wasn’t crying, at least not yet, but Yongxian could tell he might’ve been close to. How long had he been holding this much back? It felt like, by the way he’d said it, he’d never been able to say any of this to anyone before.
“Hengyu, baby…” Yongxian said, leaning over from his corner of the couch to extend a hand out. Hengyu didn’t reach back for it, might’ve not even noticed it was there.
“What?” he asked, softly, almost pitifully weakly.
“I had no idea you were feeling this way,” Yongxian told him, and Hengyu followed the statement with a sniffle. Yongxian looked away, not because he didn’t want to look at him, but because he was worried if he did, it might break something in him to see Hengyu cry.
“If this is too much for you, I don’t want you to feel like you have to. Don’t hurt yourself more by being with us,” Guangxu commented, but Hengyu shook his head rather incessantly.
“That’s the thing, I wanna do this still. I didn’t mean to jump into this whole dating a couple thing, but I like both of you quite a bit and joining a couple feels weird, but I don’t not want to. I just… I’m scared. There’s so much that can go wrong,” Hengyu further explained, and Yongxian thought he was getting it. Hengyu liked them, but he was so caught up in his own anxieties and past that he was worried the two of them would hurt him, and two people being so close to a person and then hurting them is so much worse than just one. “I think I might just need some patience… and to take things slow. I know I was the one who wasn’t doing either of those things but… maybe I just needed to say them out loud first.”
“Yeah, I hear you. I think we can do that. Nice and slow, got it,” Guangxu agreed, giving Hengyu a small smile in hopes it might secure his words a little better. He wished smiles worked like glue, or at least bandages for situations like this.
“Can I kiss… at least one of you?” Hengyu asked, followed by a sniffle, and then the slightest hint of a laugh at how goofy his words sounded in retrospect. Yongxian looked over at Guangxu, and then Guangxu looked back at him, and both of them burst into a fit of giggles.
“You first?” Guangxu offered, and Yongxian’s giggles only furthered at the silliness of the situation.
It wasn’t all bad, having two boyfriends. That is, until you have to pick which one to kiss first.