Work Text:
Lee Yau is in a hurry.
The town is quiet as he makes his way to the hospital, the medicinal herbs that took him too long to find held firmly in his hand. Rain had been falling consistently for a few hours now, so most people had decided to stay at home for the day. Yau himself wouldn’t have ventured out in such weather either if that brat from the manor hadn’t disappeared to God knows where, something about being “too busy fighting monsters to go pick herbs in the forest for him.”
Yau is almost at his destination, thoughts of his warm, dry room already filling his mind, when he’s stopped in his tracks by a cheerful voice calling for him.
“Doctor Lee!”
He considers playing dumb, pretending not to hear anything and quickly walking the remaining distance to the hospital. The choice is ripped out of his hands, however, when the owner of the voice sprints and stands in front of him, completely blocking his path.
Oh.
“What’s up Doctor Lee? Weird to see you out in this weather!” Blue eyes look at him through wet, messy blonde hair.
...The musician.
Yau could not for the life of him remember the guy’s name. You’d think that in a town as small as this, you would know everyone’s names and also every piece of information about them, deepest secrets often included. Yau needs his memory for more important things though, and the man hadn’t been around for that long anyway. All Yau knows about him is:
1. He came from a wealthy family in the city (the spoiled energy radiates from his person),
2. he plays the guitar (carries it around in a case on his shoulder even now under the pouring rain), and
3. everyone in town adores him (everyone except Yau).
He is not doing this. He has work to do, he is soaking wet and quite frankly running out of patience. The usual “Get out of my way” is about to leave his lips, but Yau can’t bring himself to utter the words. Something in the musician’s genuine smile and the shine in his eyes tells him he wouldn’t even be hurt by Yau’s snappy attitude.
Yau just stares.
The blonde’s lips are moving, smile never leaving his face, but Yau isn’t hearing a thing. The man seems entirely comfortable standing under the rain. His hair is dripping water onto his face and the leather jacket he always wears does nothing to protect his white t-shirt from getting soaked, turning almost completely see-through- Wait. No. He needs to stop staring at- God what was his name. Dan? Drake. Was it Drake?
“Duke.”
He snaps out of it.
“Huh?” Yau successfully manages to let out his first word to the other man.
“My name! It's Duke.” The musician, Duke, giggles as he says that, and Yau longs for a hole to bury himself in. Did he say all of that out loud? He needs to get out of here. Now.
“But yeah anyway, as I said, playing at the beach with the rain and the ocean as background noise was surprisingly relaxing? I might do it again sometime,” he moves to put a hand on Yau’s shoulder. “What were you doing out, Docto-”
“EXCUSE ME,” Yau dodges the hand, steps around a confused Duke, and power walks all the way to the hospital without looking back. He hurries in, says a quick Hello to his parents as he makes a beeline for his room, and closes the door behind him.
He lets out a breath.
“The fuck kind of name is Duke,” he mutters while rummaging through his closet for a dry change of clothes. “Stupid musicians with their dumb hair and their playing guitar under the rain,” he continues until he’s finally sitting at the desk ready to get started on his work.
And if Yau quickly realizes he’s unable to concentrate due to a certain pair of blue eyes popping up in his thoughts every couple of minutes, and decides to just leave this for another day in favor of taking a well-deserved nap, that’s his own goddamn business.