Work Text:
“Come on, Qing-ge! Let’s go!”
Shi Qingxuan’s voice trills through the door of the apartment Mu Qing shares with Feng Xin happily. Mu Qing rolls his eyes good-naturedly.
“Just a minute, Qingxuan! Let me just change and we’ll go.”
“Okay! You’re driving, aren’t you?”
“Qingxuan!”
“Kidding! I’ll be waiting in the hallway for you.”
Mu Qing sighs, fishing around in his closet for something suitable. He settles on a gray button-up, pulling it over his white tank top. He gives himself a quick once-over in the mirror. Finding no particularly glaring flaws, he nods and shoves the door open.
“Bye, A’Xin!” Mu Qing calls into… well, who knew where Feng Xin was. It wasn’t a big apartment, but somehow Mu Qing kept losing him.
“Stay safe, Qing’er!” came the shout back from… the kitchen, maybe? Mu Qing isn’t concerned.
He pulls on a pair of black platform boots, grabbing his keys from the vanity tray perched at a precarious angle beside their door and heads out.
“You’re finally done, Qing-ge! Your poor meimei almost died waiting for you,” Shi Qingxuan insists. She doesn’t even wait for him to lock the door before linking her arm through his.
“It wasn’t that long, don’t be dramatic,” Mu Qing retorts. “If we’re dying today, it’s going to be in your car.”
Arm in arm, they head down the hallway. Shi Qingxuan lets out an affronted gasp, eyes widening in mock-hurt.
“Qing-ge! I’m not that bad of a driver! I’ve improved a lot since high school,” she informs him. Mu Qing can’t help but snort as he jabs the down button on his building’s elevator.
“That’s not saying a lot, Qingxuan. Anyways, why are we going shopping?”
Shi Qingxuan laughs happily. “What do you mean, why? We’re going for the fun of going shopping!”
The elevator emits a cheerful ding! and the doors slide open. Mu Qing gapes at Shi Qingxuan.
“You’re telling me you dragged me out on this peaceful, lovely, beautiful Saturday afternoon dedicated to doing nothing to go to the mall with you for no particular reason?!”
“Well… yes?”
Together, they step into the elevator. Mu Qing is still in shock.
“It’s a good thing you said you’d drive. I might’ve driven you to the middle of nowhere and left you there.”
Shi Qingxuan only gives him an elegant little shrug. “Trust me, I know you’re going to have more fun than I do!”
Mu Qing only rolls his eyes.
°•. ✿ .•°
As usual, Shi Qingxuan is right. The second they step foot in the mall, a small smile has formed on Mu Qing’s face.
“Aha! You love it here!” Shi Qingxuan laughs, poking Mu Qing in the arm. He shoves her away lightly.
“I was just thinking, okay? I do need some new clothes. For the fall time, you know?”
“Mm. Sure. Should we go to your favorite store?”
Mu Qing almost starts to respond, then catches himself. “I don’t have a favorite store.”
“Really, Qing-ge? You’re going to lie to me, when we’re here to shop? Let’s go to your favorite store.”
Ignoring Mu Qing’s (half-hearted) protests, Shi Qingxuan marches over to what is, admittedly, Mu Qing’s favorite store.
Is it really his fault that he has such immaculate style? The store has the same clean, simplistic, yet subtly accessorized clothes that Mu Qing loves the most. He abandons pretending that Shi Qingxuan is forcing him over and starts to walk faster, grabbing her and pulling her along.
“You’ll dislocate my shoulder!” she protests, grinning. Mu Qing stops and lets her readjust the bag on her shoulder before they enter side by side.
“Look, look, Qing-ge!” Shi Qingxuan cries, overjoyed. Together, they make a beeline for the girl’s section.
“Aah, these summer dresses are so pretty! This color would suit me, don’t you think?” she asks, holding up the skirt of a sky blue dress against her shoulder. Mu Qing tilts his head, humming.
“It would. With those white ribbons you have, and you could do two braids down the side,” Mu Qing determines. “Ooh, that would be really cute. I think He Xuan would like it. You should let me do your makeup, too.”
“I don’t do everything for He-xiong,” Shi Qingxuan protests, but her eyes go soft. She tilts her head and studies the dress. “I do like the ties and ribbons on the back, they’re pretty. Yeah, sure, I just got paid…”
She plucks the dress from the rack, draping it over her arm. “Wait, are those skirts new?”
Mu Qing follows dutifully as Shi Qingxuan makes another run for a colorful display of long and short skirts. She picks a short black one and a long white one and adds them to her pile. “Qing-ge, Qing-ge, are those tops cute?”
Shi Qingxuan snags another three tops of varying styles before rounding on Mu Qing.
“Wait. Why aren’t you picking things?”
“I’m helping you,” Mu Qing responds evenly. “Put the brown one down, I hate those kinds of straps. They don’t suit— Anyone, pretty much, actually.”
Shi Qingxuan listens wordlessly, placing the brown crop top she’d picked up back on the rack. “Okay, but it’s your turn! I’ll try these on once you pick stuff to try on, too.”
“Ugh, but it’s so much more fun watching you shop.”
“Come on, let’s go, don’t be lazy!” Shi Qingxuan chirps cheerfully, poking him in the back with her free hand and effectively herding him over to the men’s section.
“Ow. Ow. Ow,” he protests with each poke, finally walking his way over without resistance.
“Go look at the new arrivals! I want to pick something for you from this section,” Shi Qingxuan encourages him. “Besides, I know you’ve seen all of this already. You really visit this store way too often.”
“Untrue,” Mu Qing declares. Entirely true.
He browses the new arrivals section with a kind of professionalism, studying each with a critical eye. A pair of dark brown pants are deemed acceptable. A gray button up joins the pile, quickly followed by a cropped turtleneck.
Mu Qing is just trying to determine the merits of investing in yet another pair of black platform boots (it doesn’t matter how many he has! He’s the same height as Feng Xin, so a few extra inches never hurt anyone. Except for Feng Xin’s pride) when Shi Qingxuan returns with her hands behind her back.
“What have you done,” Mu Qing says, more a statement than a question.
“Go to the changing rooms,” Shi Qingxuan prompts by way of response. Her grin is both sweet and terrifying.
They head to the back of the store with all of their clothes. Shi Qingxuan immediately dumps an armful of clothes on top of Mu Qing.
“What the—”
In his arms are a riot of colors, shapes, and sizes, nothing like what Mu Qing typically wears. He examines them all with a mixture of confusion and distaste. With pinched fingers, he plucks a vibrant orange dress from the pile and turns to look at Shi Qingxuan with dismay.
“Don’t look at me like that! Go try it on,” she encourages, shoving him towards the dressing rooms. “Show me everything as you try them on!”
Mu Qing sighs, closing the curtain behind him. He dumps the clothes onto the small stool in the corner of the dressing room, studying his options.
Well. Go big or go home, he supposes.
°•. ✿ .•°
Mu Qing yanks the curtains back two minutes later wearing what could only be described as a monstrosity.
Instantly, Shi Qingxuan starts laughing. “Oh, god, Qing-ge, green is not your color.”
“Green is not my color? Qing-mei, I’m afraid green isn’t the problem. Lime green isn’t anyone’s color.”
“But isn’t the cut of the skirt cute?”
Mu Qing has to admit, it is kind of a nice skirt.
He turns to look around it, examining the two little bows at the bottom of the skirt to the sides, holding the outer layer up to reveal the white under layer. “It’s nice, but the color is…”
“Aw, don’t be a hater! Try it on with the white shirt I put on the pile.”
“Hell, no.”
“Qing-ge!”
“Qing-mei.”
“...Fine.”
“Yay!”
The next hour passes in the same fashion, with Shi Qingxuan making Mu Qing try on various clothes from various stores. All of them are colors Mu Qing would never wear, or a kind of dress that Shi Qingxuan adores. Begrudgingly, he wears them all.
“So? Which one was your favorite?” Shi Qingxuan asks, smiling.
“None of them.”
“I bet you’re missing that lime green skirt right about now,” she teases.
“I—” Mu Qing starts, then pauses. “Actually, it wasn’t the worst skirt I tried on today.”
“Right? I’ve got a good eye, don’t I?”
“Shi Qingxuan… you’re the one who picked the other, much worse skirts that I tried on.”
“Details, details,” she says, waving a hand. “Want to go back and get it?”
“What was the point of this shopping trip, again?”
“Just to have fun. C’mon,” Shi Qingxuan says, drawing out the ‘o’ sound before grabbing onto Mu Qing’s arm again. “Let’s go back and get it!”
“I’m not spending any money on that.”
“Meimei’s treat, then,” she declares. “Humor me, would you? You looked so good in that skirt, Qing-ge!”
“...”
“Please?”
To be completely fair… it was a very nice skirt.
“Let’s go!”
“Yay!”
“But you’re buying me frozen yogurt after this, too.”
“Of course, of course.”
“And I’m never going shopping with you ever. Again. ”
“Then who would you go shopping with, if not me?” Shi Qingxuan questions. Mu Qing pauses.
“Hm. Good point.”
“That’s what I thought! Hey, after this, what if we went shopping at that new center that opened up a few months ago? I haven’t gone yet; I was waiting for you.”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
“No need to sound enthusiastic,” she laughs.
“Let’s not stay out too late, though,” Mu Qing requests, deftly ignoring her light-hearted jabs.
“I’ll have you home by 8 pm, grandpa.”
“... you know what?”
“Just kidding! Off we go!”