Work Text:
Li Tianchen is the first one brave enough to speak up. “Liu Xiao, what the fuck.”
Following close behind that delicate statement is a sharp bark of laughter from Vein, a full body motion that jostles all of the silver jewelry he has on. Once he’s started, he can’t stop, suddenly giving his best impression of a chain-smoking food processor.
Next to him, Lu Guang — horror of all horrors — emotes, brows knitting ever so slightly. He opens his mouth, as if to ask a question. He decides against it.
Xia Fei stares forward dumbly, eyes flickering here, there, back again, growing more and more stricken as his brain processing slows considerably, muttering under his breath Huh? What?
Cheng Xiaoshi goes brick red, concealing a choke in a cough, and adamantly looks at anything except the stage, suddenly becoming very invested in the floor detailing of the set design.
“Oh-!” yelps Qiao Ling, big-sister reflexes kicking into full gear as she grabs Li Tianxi by the shoulders and physically swivels her away. Li Tianxi makes a confused noise, signing to her brother, What’s happening? while Qiao Ling keeps looking.
“What the fuck,” Li Tianchen says again, because how else do you even react to this shit?
He and the rest of his trio had finished filming pretty early, and after some considerable time spent bumming around and exploring the… pocket dimension? Sub-space? Limbo? Whatever this place is, Li Tianchen was bored as fuck, and everyone had wrapped up their shows except one. So why not pay a loving visit to his childhood acquaintance? And, maybe, see for himself what the hell was taking so long.
Everyone gathered in the film studio with the sign reading Moth to a Flame in hot pink calligraphied letters, and, well…
“Hm?” hums Jae Lee as he glances up, an irritatingly mild reaction to being caught where he is.
“Hello, Tianchen,” Liu Xiao answers cheerily and somewhat breathily from under Jae Lee.
Like. Physically under him. Horizontally. There’s no way that the rose colored flush on his face can be entirely excused as makeup.
The long dining table where Liu Xiao has draped himself over has a deep, muted tablecloth, sitting below pristine tableware and shiny fruits that look straight out of Greek still-lifes, floral centerpieces colored black and white and violet and indigo, there are fucking lit candles next to them.
The top buttons of Liu Xiao’s shirt are undone and his tie is pulled down, exposing enough skin to be just shy of indecent. The chain of his fancy-looking necklace is pulled taught in Jae Lee’s fist.
Out of context, it looks like a candlelit dinner about to take a not-so-PG-13 turn— Actually, now that Li Tianchen thinks about it, he doesn’t know what possible context could modestly explain away the position that Jae and Liu Xiao are in.
“You guys were taking forever and… Why is he…? Who even is this guy?!” Li Tianchen sputters, all his questions racing for priority on his tongue.
“I’ve been… counting down the hours we’ve been on this shot,” Liu Xiao laments in melodrama, following up with a wistful sigh as he tips his head back, showing off more of his bare neck. “Officer Lee here just can’t seem to keep a straight face. I’m starting to suspect that he’s been messing up on purpose.”
Jae scoffs at the accusation. “You wound me, little bird. I’m trying my best, given the circumstances. I feel horrible for the little Clicks, having to reshoot so many times,” he croons, not looking a little sorry in the slightest. Liu Xiao himself seems perfectly content to continue lying there forever.
“How am I to keep my composure when you keep squirming underneath me?” He punctuates the question with a small tug on the necklace. Liu Xiao’s lips part and his smile widens.
“And they assign him chastity,” Vein snarks in between hysterical hiccupping laughter. “I should hire their intimacy coordinator.”
The Click directing the performance makes a defeated noise and flops out of the director’s chair face-first onto the floor. Its bouncy body only gets flinged back into the air again.
“What… what am I even looking at?” Li Tianchen thrusts both arms forward, gesticulating to the… everything in front of them. “Follow up question: why?” The Click fixes Li Tianchen with a tired, withering look, its adorable simple eyes going hollow and lifeless as if the whole operation has spiraled out of its control.
It chirps meaningfully, waving its hands and flying in aimless circles and using its tail to point around the set. Somewhere in the frantic movements, Li Tianchen’s attention is drawn to a costume rack and a white feathered outfit with a particularly deep V on the collar and back. Liu Xiao catches him judging the garments and doesn’t even have the decency to look the least bit embarrassed.
All the while, the Click rants on, Xia Fei fixated on it, nodding along to its rambles, face growing pinker and pinker. “Oh. Oh. Oh wow. Uhm. I see.” His hand crawls up to cover his face as his gaze trails over to the… lovebirds.
Cheng Xiaoshi makes a confused face. “I still have no idea why you can understand them… Do I want to know…?” he says, the smallest edge of fear in his tone.
“Yes Felix, go on, share with the class,” Vein chimes in. At the same time, Lu Guang pinches the bridge of his nose and tries to ground himself with a deep breath.
“Oh my god,” chastizes Qiao Ling, moving to cover Li Tianxi’s ears as well, yet she smiles nervously as if she’s still curious about the answer.
“What do you suppose they’re hearing about, Jae?” Liu Xiao asks sweetly from the stage, intentionally louder than conversationally.
Jae brings a finger to his chin in mock reflection. “I don’t know, something about burning up all night?”
Liu Xiao grins. “You were supposed to take it slow, you know.”
“What can I say, you really did give me your sin,” Jae drawls with breath.
Liu Xiao’s voice grows theatrically heavy. “Maybe they’re hearing all about me kneeling front of you as you hooked your sword under my chin, about how I ran my fingers along it’s honed, long, hard length-”
“We’re leaving,” Li Tianchen announces, ushering the gang — everyone suddenly silent — towards the door. Even Jae seems at a loss for words at Liu Xiao, letting out a startled oh! On the way out Vein does throw out something about method acting.
“…I take it that’s our sign to hurry it up with the filming?” Jae muses when the studio has cleared of the multicolored menagerie.
Liu Xiao’s eyes fold into smug, smiling crescents. “What was that? I was distracted by how striking your blushing face is in this lighting.”
Jae’s breath hitches. “You…”
Next to them, the director Click starts its incessant chatter again, and a flurry of fluffy white helpers rush on stage to smooth out the set and touch up their makeup. More Clicks scuttle around, preparing for lights, camera, action!
Liu Xiao chuckles lightly. “Camera’s rolling.”
“For a good shot, finally?” Jae asks.
Liu Xiao smiles. “Up to you.”