Chapter Text
~~~ Friday, May 30 ~~~
| Huaisang Nie 9.48 AM
| Where ARE you??@??!!?!?!
| D:
9.49 AM |
uh…on my way in? trains almost there. whyy? its not 10 yet, chill out |
tis fine my dude bro. No one cares if im a little late |
| Huaisang Nie 9.49 AM
| I care. I care greatly.
| Did you not chekc your email? There’s some surprise all hands meeting this morning at 10.
| *check
| You don’t think maybe the friggin studio ART DIRECTOR needs to be there on time for this?!
| Also what’s it about??? The email was stupid vague.
| And that’s never good.
| NEVER
| No one tells me crap here. :c
| Huaisang Nie 9.51 AM
| Hello?!?!?
| I swear to god Wei Ying if you know anything about this and you’re holding out on me
| I know where you keep your Red Bull.
9.51 AM |
jeebus christmas calm down |
leave my magical brain juice out of this |
and no, you know i dont’ read emails. |
whats the meeting about? |
| Huaisang Nie 9.52 AM
| That’s what I’m asking YOU, dumbass. You’re the fancy director level one here, not me.
9.52 AM |
i’m running i’m running gimme 3 min |
wait |
wait wait wait wait wait |
u think its layoffs? |
| Huaisang Nie 9.53 AM
| Ughughghghghghgh fml
| Just hurry up and get here already.
9.53 AM |
fuuuuuuuuq |
💀 |
* * *
“Well, that was not on my bingo cards for the year.” Nie Huaisang puffed a stray strand of hair from his face and stabbed his fork back into the salad bowl in front of him. Halfway with the speared lettuce to his mouth, he paused, then leaned over the table towards the man sitting across from him, waving the forkful of food in his face. “Helllooooooo, earth to Wei Ying. You alright there, buddy? You haven’t touched your instant noodles. They’re gonna get mushy.”
“Huh? Oh. Yeah.” Wei Ying blinked hard and rubbed his hands up his face, carding them up through his bangs, before dropping them back to the table. He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, got a little distracted.” And he was. Very distracted. All his hard work, all his saving and scrimping and forgoing years of missed weekends of avocado toast and over-priced cappuccinos was finally going to pay off. Not that he actually believed any of that boomer bullshit that Aunt Yu spouted about boycotting Starbucks to save for a down payment, but still. It was soon going to be his.
Nie Huaisang huffed and slumped back down into his chair, dropping his fork back into the bowl. “Look, I don’t think you need to worry about a re-org or anything, you’re too valuable an asset to the company. Me on the other hand, there’s only so much middle management a game studio can support once -”
“Can I tell you something?” Wei Ying’s silver eyes bored into Nie Huaisang’s face with sudden focus. His hands clenched into tight fists and he swallowed hard, waiting for an answer.
“Um…yeah?”
Wei Ying bounded up from where he was sitting at the small table in his office, nearly upsetting both his and Nie Huaisang’s lunch, as he lunged for the open door. Slamming it shut behind him, he leaned back against the bare wood, breathing deeply as he rubbed his face again. He whispered, his voice tiny behind his hands. “I can buy it now.”
“Buy what now?” Nie Huaisang scrunched his nose as he looked across the room at his friend, confusion clearly etched across his face.
“The house. THE house. You know, the one off Charles? The one with the adorable hobbit garden and the actual freaking Victorian witch turret?” Wei Ying began to bounce on his toes across the office floor, still holding his hands up to his face.
“Dude, what in the world are you talking about?”
Wei Ying squealed, and threw himself into the chair across from Nie Huaisang. A wide, dazzling smile bloomed across his face as he slammed his hands down on the table, leaning across the surface until he was practically draped across it. “I never actually thought they were going to sell, you know?”
Nie Huaisang slowly nodded, brows still furrowed in confusion. “The homeowners?”
“Nooooooo. Keep up. The studio!” Wei Ying bit the bottom of his lip and looked conspiratorially side to side before placing a finger lightly across his mouth. He continued in a fake stage whisper. “Ok, seriously, you need to keep the rest of this secret. You can do that for me, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Nie Huaisang leaned in closer and matched Wei Ying’s terribly loud whisper. “I mean unless you’re about to tell me that you committed, like, mass-scale securities fraud or something then I don’t know man, I don’t have the constitution to dig enough holes to hide your alleged body count.”
“I believe in your wimpy little arms even if you don’t, but no.” Wei Ying took a long slow breath and continued, his silver eyes dancing with sparkles. “So you know how I was one of the first employees the founders hired back when they started Impure Realms?”
Nie Huaisang nodded. “Yeah. Third one they hired, employee number 17008A.”
Wei Ying swiftly drew back and squinted at the man, frowning. “Why the fuck do you know my employee id number?”
“Focus. It’s on the stupid Azure DevOps pages that I’m forced to live in every day for you.”
“Riiiiiight. That’s not creepy.” Wei Ying shook his head. “Anyway. Yes, hired early, first batch of people. And well, you know, because it was a small startup that didn’t pay great -”
“Still doesn’t.”
“Oh my fucking god shut up and listen.” Wei Ying whined and rolled his eyes. “Anyway. So, as compensation, they gave all of us early peeps shadow shares of the company. Those then convert to full shares, only on either a successful sale or an IPO. But you know, they did it real quiet-like since they didn’t want to extend it out further after the first couple of people and dilute their own control.” Wei Ying’s eyes widened and he waited expectantly for Nie Huaisang to connect the financial dots he was very carefully putting down, the corners of his lips tugging upwards.
Nie Huaisang squinted at him, and then glared off into the corner. “Since when did you become financially literate and know how to use things like ‘IPO’ in a sentence? Has today actually all been some kind of group-effort let’s punk Huaisang day?”
“Holy crap you are the worst friend.” Wei Ying threw his hands up in the air before reaching over and grabbing Nie Huaisang by his shoulders. “Quick, what’s one point five percent of fifty million?”
“Uh…seven hundred and fifty thousand. Why?”
Wei Ying leaned further into the other man’s space, his fingers tightening and digging into Nie Huaisang’s polo shirt. “One point five percent of one hundred million?”
“One point five million. Dude, I know you’re not this bad at math. What are you getting at?”
Wei Ying beamed and he released Nie Huaisang’s aching shoulders, jumping up to spin around his office. “They exited! The meeting, remember!! I owned, still own?, one point five percent of the company! When the lawyers finalize the sale with Nightless Games I’m going to be an actual freaking millionaire.” Wei Ying cackled as he fell back sideways across his chair and covered his face with his hands, his legs swinging wildly in the air. “I can’t believe this is actually happening…”
Nie Huaisang stared in shock at his friend for a few long seconds, before dumping the remains of his neglected salad bowl onto Wei Ying’s head.
* * *
Wei Ying had found it impossible to concentrate for the remainder of the day at the office, daydreams of tending his garden and hosting parties in his backyard being far more seductive then yet again explaining to the external mo-cap team that no, it was in fact in their contract to clean up the raw animations before they sent the files over for approval. Or sift through another pile of Nie Huaisang’s production reports from the past sprint. Rather than stew in his office from not being able to speak a word to anyone of his good luck (besides Nie Huaisang of course), he opted to catch an earlier train back to his apartment.
He knew it was stupid to act like the money was already his before it hit his bank account, as sometimes these things did fall through. But Wei Ying couldn’t help but pour himself another shot of his favorite rice wine and throw it back in a single hit, grinning like a lunatic up at his soon-to-be-not-his dated popcorn ceiling.
HR had confirmed quietly in a small meeting later that afternoon that his shadow shares would indeed convert upon closure of the deal, and that he could opt for an immediate cash pay-out or continue to hold onto the shares until a later date. While the company at large wasn’t told the final sale amount in the all-hands, anyone with a potential payout had been informed that the deal was structured to close at roughly one hundred and twenty million, pending final due diligence and legal discovery by Nightless Games’ army of lawyers.
Impure Realms Entertainment may have started out as a small game studio, nestled up in a dingy office complex in a forgotten suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, but over the past ten-odd years it had become a powerhouse in the action/adventure genre space, amassing a rabidly devoted following of fans with their xianxia-themed power-fantasy franchise. The latest one in the series, Rage Against the Heavens 4: Immortal Awakening had blown past their own internal expectations and sold over eight million copies in the first two weeks alone. It was no wonder that Nightless Games, the largest and richest game publisher in the States, had finally taken notice and moved to acquire. It was rare enough to find an independent studio surviving, much less thriving, in the spiraling shithole that had become the video game industry since the end of the pandemic.
Wei Ying had been one of ImRealms (as the studio was colloquially known, and not IRE as the founders had hoped) first employees, and their first artist hire, freshly graduated as a painting major from the Rhode Island School of Design. Read to anyone in the know: cheap as fuck and easy to boss around. He had no fantasies as to why he was hired instead of an industry veteran, but he was going to work his butt off to prove to the founders they had made the right decision. And also to stick it to his shitty adoptive “aunt”.
Aunt Yu had insisted that he was going to starve as an artist and die an early death since she refused to pay for him post graduation. And that he was wasting all the previous effort, goodwill, and money she’d put into raising him by majoring in something so useless and stupid. He still remembered the cold fury radiating from her when he waved the job offer in her face, before prancing out of her house for the last time.
From those early days as a junior concept artist, he’d helped build the studio’s art team from a mismatch of random hires and disciplines to ImRealm’s largest department, with over ninety internal employees and double that in external contractors, that he somehow chaotically managed as the company’s Art Director. If he was honest with himself, Nie Huaisang did most of the actual day to day management as his team’s senior producer, allowing Wei Ying to devote himself more to the visual feedback and creation side of things.
It still didn’t seem real to him that all his work and perseverance had actually paid off. Good things didn’t naturally happen to him, didn’t just fall into his lap. He typically found it impossible to just be calm and happy - various what-ifs and possible disaster scenarios constantly vied for his attention. Although he was bubbly and zippy on the outside, he spiraled on the inside.
Opening up a second bottle, Wei Ying disregarded his cup and swigged directly from the top, attempting to drive his ever looming imposter syndrome and anxiety away. He’d likely pay for this in the morning, but that’s what weekends were for. It wasn’t everyday that he felt like maybe, just maybe, he was good enough to deserve some small sliver of happiness.
~~~ Monday, June 2 ~~~
Lan Zhan carefully packed up his old student violin and double checked that he had extra strings, two of each, and multiple cakes of rosin tucked away in the case’s side pouches. It wasn’t his nicest instrument he owned, but he didn’t feel comfortable using either one of the priceless violins on loan to him until he had a better idea of what this new contract entailed. While everyone assumed he would naturally prefer the Stradivarius or Guadagnini in his care, the somewhat battered and nicked wooden body of his high school violin was still his favorite to play. He loved tracing his fingers over the small scratches and scrapes, enjoying the way the imperfections felt under his calloused fingertips, remembering where each little ding had come from. He firmly believed each little flaw improved the instrument’s tone.
The phone in his pocket buzzed in quick succession with the arrival of new messages. He had always hated phones, hated the way the cold unyielding plastic felt in his hand, hated the way the electronics warped and distorted the sound of the other person’s voice into something foreign and metallic. Hated not being able to just nod or make small gestures to respond, being forced to choke out verbal answers. The recent general acceptance of using texts for everything had made his inevitable interactions with other people finally bearable. He hadn’t even bothered to set up his voice mail on his new phone. If they didn’t know to text him, he didn’t need to answer.
Taking his phone from his pocket, he saw he had two new messages, one from his brother, and another from his agent. Checking them in order of delivery, he saw that his older brother, Lan Huan, had sent him a Charlie Brown gif. It began to loop incessantly upon opening it, wishing him in muted pastels to break a leg. Lan Zhan sent back a simple thumbs up emoji in response.
Emojis he enjoyed as well, although some of the ways his masters students used them in combinations to form complete sentences confused him. He’d often have to google what specific groups of emojis meant after he failed to puzzle them out himself. Most searches were enlightening, however on more than one occasion he found himself slamming his laptop shut as he stumbled upon explanations that left him feeling deeply anxious or embarrassed.
The second message from his agent required an actual response, so he lowered himself back to the couch in his living room, cradling the phone carefully so he didn’t drop it.
Elizabeth Campbell
Today 9:32 AM
| Hey there! Just checking in one last time before you head out - you need anything from me?
Lan Zhan shook his head no as he started thoughtfully typing out his reply.
Good morning, Elizabeth. I am set for today. Thank you for asking. |
She must have been waiting for him, as her messages came back instantly.
| Awesome! We both know you’ll do great.
| Let me know if you like this kind of gig, I can arrange for more if this works out.
| I know you wanted to keep your summer lighter this year but hey, it’s local! No travel!
| Win win, Right? It’s basically free easy money!
| ❤️🥳
Lan Zhan furrowed his brow at the last line she sent. Heart emojis always confused and unsettled him. He never knew exactly what the other person meant, so he chose to do what he almost always did, and ignored it.
Thank you. I will let you know. |
Tucking his phone back into his pocket, he gathered his violin, messenger bag, and car keys, and called out softly behind him, “I’ll be back later this afternoon.” Not expecting any response, he left quietly through the front door.
* * *
Wei Ying’s jaw hung open as he stared in confusion, standing rigid in the doorway to his no-longer private office. Two equally confused faces from inside stared right back at him. The table on which he and Nie Huaisang had eaten lunch on Friday was conspicuously missing, and in its place were two small desks, two workstations, and two very young men he was positive he’d never seen before. One was overdressed in a smart peach colored button-up and grey pressed slacks, and he was sporting a tie of all things.
The other made Wei Ying begin to strongly worry about his sanity; it was like looking at what could have been a spitting image of himself, only perhaps fifteen years younger. The boy wore his long black hair in the same high ponytail as his own, had the same tight black jeans, scuffed combat boots, and a ratty black metal band graphic tee that Wei Ying was positive he’d also owned at some point. The boy even had two full color tattoo sleeves spiraling up his arms, similar to his own. The only obvious difference was the location of the small mole on his face. While Wei Ying’s was located underneath his bottom lip, the boy instead had one tucked up below his right eye.
Stumbling back into the hallway, he slammed the door in front of him and looked to the name plate to the right of the door frame. A twinge of worry flickered across his face. The words “Wei Ying, Art Director” were printed clearly on the cheap, grey plastic. So no, he hadn’t gone to the wrong office by accident. This should be right.
Shaking his head, he huffed to himself in exasperation and ran his fingers through his unruly bangs. He’d had trouble staying asleep the night before as he thought about what fun colors he’d repaint every room in his new house. Truthfully, he’d had trouble sleeping most nights since Friday’s news; he still found himself oscillating hard between giddy disbelief and overwhelmed anxiety. Rather than toss and turn for a few more hours this morning, he’d ended up taking an early train in an attempt to distract himself.
“Should probably hydrate more today,” he muttered to himself, reaching out for the door handle. He shook his head again and tried to smile, a high pitched laugh escaping between his gritted teeth. “Guess this is my wakeup call to start adulting better. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Sleep. Definitely sleep more. Thanks, brain, message received.” But before he could turn the handle, the door flew away from him and he was met face to face again with his bizarro-land mini-me.
The smaller version of himself looked up at him like he’d grown an extra head, and pointed at the name plate on the wall. “Why are you standing out here talking to yourself? This you?”
Wei Ying shut his eyes and rubbed his hands down his face. Nope, not a stress fever dream after all. “If this is someone’s idea of a joke, ha ha, you got me. Very amusing.” He spread his fingers over his eyes and peeked out at the boy from between them. “Ok, real talk now. Who hired you to prank me? Was it Nie Huaisang? No, Jiang Cheng. This seems like some kind of sick thing he’d do. Come on, buddy. I’ll double whatever tip you’re getting if you tell me. Who let you in here?”
Before the young man could answer, Nie Huaisang rounded the hallway corner with a bright sunny smile plastered across his face, holding a small stack of papers. “Oh great, you’re here early, and I see you’ve met your interns already!” Striding up to the office, he gestured at the pony-tailed youth. “This one here is Mo Xuanyu, and the other quiet one hiding in the back is Wen Ning.” Nie Huaisang continued smiling, waiting for a response.
“...I have interns.” Wei Ying finally managed to choke out, feeling very proud of himself for how steady he kept his voice.
“Yep! Summer interns, today’s their official start date.” Nie Huaisang’s smile started to slide sideways off his face as Wei Ying continued to silently stare at him, devoid of emotion. “You know, the two interns you’re getting. Until school starts in August. That you’re responsible for managing. In the email I sent you last week where I explained everything in exacting, loving, super precise detail.”
Wei Ying blinked a few times and pursed his lips. “Yes….the … email…that I totally most definitely read.” Each word felt like it was pulled against his will from his lungs.
Nie Huaisang’s smile completely dropped as he glared back. “Oh my god, Wei Ying. Seriously, do you ever open your email? Why do I even try?” He started to fan himself with the papers, a nervous tick he’d developed early on in his career.
Wei Ying’s face brightened as he put on his bestest, most sparkliest smile, turning back to the boy in his doorway who was now also glaring at him. “I’m sorry gentlemen, would you excuse us for a moment? I need to clarify a few things with my dear production staff, real quick like. Be right back.” Nie Huaisang’s face paled as Wei Ying grabbed his wrist and forcefully dragged him into the nearest conference room.
* * *
“Janet, am I really the only one who didn’t know about this?” Wei Ying was slumped over across ImRealm’s front reception desk, his arms and head dangling down in defeat. The older woman’s steel-grey hair was pinned up in a neat bun, and she was wearing a very loud orange, pink, and yellow sundress, with matching giant dangling earrings. A melted triple citrus sherbet cup would envy the spiralling swirls on this dress. She sat on the other side of the desk, and laughed lightly at him in response.
“Well hon, you technically would have known about it if you’d ever stop to read your fucking email like a goddamn fucking professional. Which I’m led to believe you are, despite all outward appearances.” Janet’s thick Baltimore accent was warm and cozy, and softened her scolding to something almost grand-motherly in nature, despite the multiple f-bombs she effortlessly dropped. She leafed through the stack of folders in front of her, looking for the orientation papers he needed to deliver to his new charges.
Wei Ying whined into the cold surface of the marble counter top. “The marketing one I think I can do something useful with. But, a programmer? What the hell am I supposed to do with a programmer? Why isn’t he in Ram’s department?”
“Ram’s department is overloaded since what’s-his-fuck-face left, and you’re the only senior person who had the extra office space and time.” The older woman huffed and smacked the back of his head lightly with the two files she’d located. “Honey bunches, you’re a smart man. You’ll figure it out.” Janet stood and lightly dropped the two folders next to him on the desk top.
“These are the final contract and W-9 papers they’ll need to sign, as well as their orientation packets and software login credentials.” A twinge of actual annoyance colored her next words. “Those stupidass dumbfucks in HR however forgot to send over security key cards with the packets, so I’ll need to go see if IT has any extras they can sign over. Otherwise your two little angels won’t be able to get into the building on their own, and we can’t have that.” She huffed again and rolled her eyes. “I swear, I do half their goddamn jobs for them, the fucking toolboxes. You’d all be screwed without me.”
Wei Ying turned his head to the side, pressing his cheek into the marble, as he made puppy dog eyes up at the older woman. “Janet, have I ever told you that you’re my favorite here?”
Dimples sprouted on either side of Janet’s face as she smiled. “Routinely, hon. And you know you’re mine. Which is also why I’m trusting you to man the front door here while I go track down those fucking key cards. Should only be a few.”
Wei Ying gave her a weak thumbs up. “ ‘K. You can count on me.”
Janet nodded in agreement and spun on her heels, her ankle-length dress flaring around her and she stomped purposefully down the main hallway, clearly on a mission to bash some heads together.
Straightening himself up, Wei Ying started to flip through the information packets the woman had left for him. Helpfully, she had placed a print-out of each boy’s resume at the top of each file. Janet really was the best; Wei Ying made a mental note he should probably get her donuts or something later in the week. Everyone liked donuts. He began reading the first one, figuring he might as well take the time to learn something about each kid before trying to task them.
His eyebrows started to climb as he skimmed Mo Xuanyu’s information. Rising senior at UPenn, marketing and communications major, with a minor concentration in graphic design. Set to graduate with honors. Lots of relevant experience in running social media campaigns and helping develop marketing adverts aimed at gen z and gen alpha. Printout examples of some of his most recent design work. Wei Ying felt a surging twinge of excitement despite his earlier misgivings. He definitely had a project forming in mind that he could hand off to this kid, something that might even be actually useful instead of usual intern throw-away-busy-work. He was still weirded out by how much the guy physically resembled him, but that was something he could get over. Eventually. Likely with more drinking.
Placing Mo Xuanyu’s file aside, he lifted up the next one and felt his good spirits dissipate. Wen Ning, also a rising senior, studying locally at UMD. Computer Science major, no minor listed. He started reading the resume slower trying to find some angle as to why this kid was hired. He seemed like a nice enough, polite guy when he talked to him earlier, but there was literally nothing on here that screamed game dev, or even wannabe game dev. All his previous work experience listed was for charitable non-profits and medical clinics, with responsibilities spanning from IT help desk to small app development. No game-related hobbies listed, no personalizing information of any kind listed. It was the most bland, sanitized, corporate resume he’d ever read.
Now Wei Ying was just actively confused by the puzzle in front of him. Tapping the paper’s edge on the desk, he plopped his chin down into his hand and stared off into the distance, eyes unfocused. There was something there that was itching at him, screaming at him to be noticed, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.
Before he could figure it out, the front door’s grating, electronic buzzer sliced through his thoughts, and he almost threw the file folders onto the ground as he jumped from the sudden sound. He never got over how loud the damn thing was.
“I GOT IT!” he bellowed out to no one in particular, as he walked the short distance over to the frosted double doors. He could just make out a tall silhouette on the other side, standing respectfully a short distance back from the entrance. It looked like the person had a couple of bags with them, so maybe it was the mailman, early for once.
Wei Ying pushed the door open and froze, struck speechless for the second time that morning.
It wasn’t the mailman.
It was easily the most drop-dead gorgeous person Wei Ying had ever seen, who was staring right back at him with wide golden eyes. His dark hair was cropped stylishly short, but longer fringe in the front perfectly framed and accented his sharp, sculpted cheekbones. His crisp, pale blue dress shirt was tucked neatly into white linen slacks, both of which were slim fit and tailored, showing off his small, trim waist and impossibly long legs. The strap of an expensive looking leather messenger bag was slung across his chest, accentuating his wide shoulders, while another black strap held something else at his back. The man’s pale pink lips parted softly and the jut of his throat bobbed lightly as he swallowed.
Oh, fuck me was the only thought Wei Ying’s overloaded brain managed to sputter before it tapped out.
* * *
Lan Zhan didn’t know what he should be expecting from his first ever visit to a video game studio, but it certainly wasn’t this. In the small amount of research he’d done online before his appointment at Impure Realms, he had come to the conclusion that the majority of people who worked at these companies were either white, male, and very young, or just as frequently, white, male, older, and bald. The person standing in front of him in the open doorway, however, fit neither of these stereotypes tucked away inside his head.
He was instead by far the most beautiful man Lan Zhan had ever encountered in his thirty odd years. The back of Lan Zhan’s brain couldn’t help but point out that ‘beautiful’ was perhaps not the most appropriate term to label a man, but it was the only one he could come up with in such short notice that fit.
The other man was only a few inches shorter than Lan Zhan, but still had to tilt his head up slightly in order to meet his eyes. His long, black hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail (off center, he couldn’t help but notice), tied back with a red satin ribbon, and waves of thick bangs cascaded over the youthful, golden skin of his face. He wondered if it was as silky to the touch as it looked, as it gently refracted the light of the harsh fluorescents overhead.
Lan Zhan could not for the life of him recall a time he’d ever made note of the shape of someone’s mouth, but he found himself engaging in that very activity as his eyes were pulled downwards towards the soft-looking, full arcs that were parted ever so slightly into a small ‘o’ shape. His breath violently caught in his throat and he swallowed, hard, when he noticed the small mole delicately positioned just below and to the left of his bottom lip. He grasped the strap of his violin case as hard as he could, fighting the overwhelming urge to run his thumb across it.
He most likely would have continued to stare in an increasingly disturbing way if the other man hadn’t visibly shook himself and then beamed up at him with the most radiant smile that somehow, against all logic, made him even more unbelievably beautiful. Not beautiful. Bewitching? Gorgeous? Exquisite? No. Lan Zhan decided to stick with Beautiful.
“Oh my gosh, where are my manners.” The other man giggled as he ran a hand through his mess of bangs, carding them up and over to the top of his head, where they refused to stay before flopping down again in front of his face. Lan Zhan immediately changed his mind, he had a better word now. Adorable.
“Hi, I’m Wei Ying, can I help you with something?” Lan Zhan thought his voice was a bit high-pitched for a man, but not in a grating or annoying way. Rather, it lilted and trilled like a songbird. The man didn’t speak his words, he sang them.
The man extended an open hand towards him and waited, his silver eyes sparkling.
Lan Zhan normally hated touching people, just about to the same level that he loathed phones, but he tentatively reached out a hand and grasped Wei Ying’s in what he hoped bore some remote semblance to a normal person handshake. Wei Ying’s hand was warm and the skin soft. It was smaller than Lan Zhan’s, who had no trouble curling his fingers around his outstretched palm. He swallowed again, praying his voice not to give out on him.
“Lan Zhan. Is this…” His voice naturally didn’t behave as it faded out.
Thankfully, the other man had no problem finishing his question for him. “Yup, you found it! Super secret video game company, I know, no signage anywhere. It’s to keep the crazies out. We had a bad time with a mystery fruit basket a couple of years back. Don’t ask.” Wei Ying laughed and gestured broadly as he moved out of the doorway, motioning for Lan Zhan to enter, who obediently did so. “Welcome to Impure Realms Entertainment. I assume you have an appointment to see someone?”
His eyes quickly flicked up and down Lan Zhan’s stature and a small, wet pink shape darted quickly over his bottom lip. It glistened. “Uh I mean, not that I’m saying you don’t work here, or I mean, couldn’t work here. Obviously you don’t, ‘cause I do and I don’t recognize you. Not that I know everyone here but I think I’d remember someone like y-…uh..I mean…not that I’m creepy stalking everyone here…but… I’m sorry. I’m going to stop talking now.” A bright red flush had bloomed across the man’s golden cheeks, staining them a similar shade to his plush mouth, and he awkwardly looked down at his feet as he coughed lightly into a closed fist.
Lan Zhan cleared his throat and carefully removed the violin case from his back, holding it up in front of him. “Ms. Lancaster.”
“OH! Oh, ok yeah! You’re here for Sophie. Instrument case. Yeah. I got you.” Wei Ying’s eyes lit up as he beamed another full-toothed smile, and an unfamiliar feeling tightened in Lan Zhan’s chest. The smaller man actually skipped as he moved over to a chest-height empty reception desk and patted a ledger placed on top, his long thin fingers lightly tapping a rhythm across it. “Just sign-in here and I can get the rest of it set up for you, no problem-o.”
Stepping up to the desk, Lan Zhan began to carefully fill out the information asked of him on the guest sign-in sheet, hyper aware of the presence literally bouncing in place next to him. He took a somewhat shaky breath and focused on the questions in front of him. He could do this. He liked filling out surveys. Surveys were easy.
Lan Zhan heard Wei Ying begin to hum lightly under his breath but then suddenly swayed, his shoulder brushing up against Lan Zhan’s arm. It felt like a jolt of lightning had burst forth from that one small point of contact, up through his arm and down his spine to the center of his core. Lan Zhan swallowed again and gripped the pen tighter in his fingers. He would have worried for his balance had he not already been leaning his weight fully up against the edge of the reception desk.
He swallowed again. He was so screwed.
* * *
He was so screwed.
Wei Ying felt like he was practically vibrating out of his skin, and he bit his bottom lip as he desperately looked around the room for anything to focus on. Otherwise he found his gaze inevitably drawn to Lan Zhan’s waist, and the extremely distracting way the thin linen pants tightly hugged and then draped down from the round globes of his ass, leaving little to the imagination. Not that there was anything wrong with Wei Ying’s artistically trained imagination, but still. There weren’t many blanks to fill in.
The nervous energy filling him caused him to start lightly bouncing in place. Rather than look completely insane and incapable of controlling himself, Wei Ying started to hum a random tune under his breath, trying to bop more to the rhythm so it all looked purposeful. Clearly he was just enjoying the moment, not at all about to crawl out of his skin or anything like that.
But because apparently the universe had decided Wei Ying had been given too much good luck in the past few days, he lost his balance and careened into Lan Zhan’s shoulder on his next bounce. Crap crap crap, Wei Ying immediately jerked back and sucked in a breath. However, Lan Zhan either didn’t seem to notice - unlikely - or decided it wasn’t worth mentioning. There wasn’t more than a momentary pause of his pen as he continued to write.
Wei Ying let out his held breath and sent a silent apology back up to the universe. Not only had the man not seemed to mind the accidental touch, but it gave Wei Ying the opportunity to notice that he wasn’t wearing any jewelry on his fingers, namely, any rings. That didn’t necessarily mean anything nowadays, but it opened up a small timid window of hope in his fluttering chest.
As Lan Zhan neared the end of the guest form, Wei Ying wracked his brain for something normal to say, and not the actual thing he wanted to blurt out which was more along the lines of I couldn’t help but notice the attractive way your pants frame your butt, good sir. He was saved from any impending butt-based embarrassment by the thundering arrival of Janet back from her quest, with two familiar forms following behind her. Wen Ning looked permanently startled and stared fixedly ahead, contemplating the middle distance, while Mo Xuanyu nonchalantly took in the artwork adorning the walls, moving with a swagger like he owned the place.
“Well, that was a goddamn fucking bust, IT’s going to have to order more. We’re apparently out of spare keys, and no one thought that maybe, just maybe that was a fucking problem. But look who I found running around all lost and not sure how to get back to their new office. They -” Janet stopped mid breath finally realizing that Wei Ying wasn’t alone at the front desk, as Lan Zhan turned slightly to face her.
Janet visibly shook herself and smoothed her hands down her rainbow-barfed-upon dress. She tilted her head and busted out one of her practiced smiles for ‘I’m totally a very demure, very mindful, nice old lady’, and not the smile of the rampaging, terrifying, office bitch-queen that she actually was. Wei Ying considered this last part a compliment.
“You must be Mr. Lan! We’ve been so looking forward to your visit. Ms. Lancaster mentioned you’d be stopping by this morning. I hope Wei Ying here has been a pleasant host in my absence?”
“Mn.” Lan Zhan nodded, his face a serene mask.
“Wonderful! We pride ourselves on our hospitality here at ImRealms.” Janet clapped her hands and motioned towards Lan Zhan to follow her. “Now let me show you to where Ms. Lancaster’s recording rooms are set up. They’re unfortunately a bit hard to give directions to-”
“I CAN DO IT!” Wei Ying blurted out, immediately gaining the startled attention of all present. “I mean, Janet, you’re obviously busy and if you leave no one is gonna be manning the door. You know, in case the mail guy shows up. I know how you love the mail guy. Love platonically that is. Cause you get mail, from the mail guy. Who doesn’t love mail. Wouldn’t want to take that from you.” Wei Ying tried to flash his most brightest, most dazzling, most helpfulest smile, hoping this latest tirade sounded less unhinged than his previous one.
Janet side-eyed him for much longer than necessary, drawing the moment out into an awkward silence. Someone coughed. Wei Ying couldn’t help but start to fidget under her stony gaze, trying desperately to look as cute and innocent as possible.
Squinting one last time, she finally shrugged her acceptance. “If you insist, he’s all yours then. Mr. Lan., I apologize in advance for anything absurd our esteemed art director says. Please know that any views expressed by our employees are their own and are not a reflection of the values of our company.” The lower cases on his title were distinctly audible. Wei Ying couldn’t help but pout at her a little. Rude much.
The corner of her mouth ticked up as she continued. “Make sure to take your two lovely little interns with you as well, and don’t forget all their paperwork!” She slammed the folders from the desk into his chest and flashed a small feral smile at him. “Now back to work with you, hon, and don’t dawdle, Mr. Lan is a very busy man and his time is far more valuable than yours.”
Wei Ying couldn’t help sticking his tongue out at her as he grabbed the papers, and then shoved them directly into Wen Ning’s arms. “Here, make yourself useful.” Wen Ning clutched the files tightly and slowly nodded, still looking as if he were about to keel over at any minute.
Tilting his head to smile up at Lan Zhan, in what he hoped was an appealing way, Wei Ying continued. “How about a tour of the office on the way down then? Any questions you have about the company or the stuff you see, you just ask your new buddy Wei Ying. I’ve been here practically the longest of anybody, I know all the things. How’s that sound?”
Lan Zhan paused, his gaze flicking down to Wei Ying’s mouth, before he nodded once. “Mn.” He took a small breath before rumbling in a resonant baritone, “Thank you.”
Wei Ying’s ability to make good decisions abruptly fled his body, and he hastily closed the distance between them, looping his arm through Lan Zhan’s. Holy crap the man’s arms were solid as rocks. He’d never been attracted to a forearm before, but there it was. Guess there was always a first time for everything. He began to panic that perhaps he had made a bad decision after all as he felt the other man stiffen, but to his surprised delight Lan Zhan relaxed into his hand after a brief pause. If the universe could accept donuts, he would send donuts to it as well. Donuts for all.
“Great! Let’s go then!” His voice only cracked a little bit at the end there, which he tried to cover up with a manic-sounding giggle. Wei Ying called back over his shoulder to his interns, “Keep up you two! If you get lost I’m not coming back for you.” He was fairly certain he heard Janet groan from behind him as they set off.
Wei Ying honestly wasn’t even sure what nonsense was blabbering forth from his mouth as he kept a running commentary up about the company and the awards cabinets they passed. But he kept it going relentlessly, otherwise he was positive he would lose his nerve and melt into a Wei Ying shaped puddle onto the floor. Here he was casually throwing himself onto the most physically perfect person he’d ever encountered in his life and the guy was allowing it. Wei Ying was sure once he had a minute alone to actually process what was happening he would indeed succumb to puddle-meltage.
Lan Zhan continued to make small noncommittal noises and diligently looked where Wei Ying gestured, but didn’t interrupt, ask any questions, or pose any comments of his own. Wei Ying normally would have suspected he was boring the other man to death, but every time he snuck a glance out of the corner of his eye Lan Zhan appeared to be thoughtfully focused on whatever hot garbage was currently spewing from his mouth. Wen Ning and Mo Xuanyu followed from a discreet distance, blessedly silent, and Wei Ying made a mental note to be nice to them for the rest of the day. Hell, the rest of the week. His morning couldn’t possibly be going any better than it was.
ImRealms was spread out over three floors of a larger office building, with audio being located on the lowest one. The public reception desk was located however on the top floor of the space (for reasons forgotten), so rather than lead the group outside to the public elevators, Wei Ying opted for the longer route winding down across the large built-in staircases which connected each floor.
The office really was like a rabbit warren, if the rabbit building it was high on psychedelics and set to build a labyrinth to put Midas’ to shame. Switch-backing hallways surrounded by identical office doors opened up into larger open spaces covered in sterile cubicle farms, each with their own assortment of hallways branching off in different directions. Someone at some point had helpfully tried to improve navigation by painting each hallway a different color, but that only increased the feeling that there was a mad color-blind architect at work.
Rather than move to a new space and custom build something sensible from the ground up, ImRealms had grown in spurts and sprawls over the years, taking up discreet chunks of space as they became available. The one and only good thing Wei Ying thought about this was that it allowed for an unbelievable amount of walls that could be covered in his team’s artwork.
“So, all the stuff you’ve seen up to this point is our older work from past titles, as cool as that is. But down past this way is what I’m actually most proud of, that is, proud of the stuff that my team made. Everything from here until we get down into the audio basement is work from our new super-secret prototype.” Wei Ying paused and then sheepishly looked up at Lan Zhan, daring to meet his eyes for a brief second. “Lemme know what you think, ‘k?”
As Wei Ying turned to start explaining what the different technical drawings and concept panels were about, he distinctly heard Mo Xuanyu make gagging noises behind him. Change of plans, he would be only nice to Wen Ning. And Mo Xuanyu definitely wasn’t getting donuts.
* * *
Wei Ying had since dropped off the other two young men on the previous floor, claiming confidently they could make their way back ‘home’ from there, leaving Lan Zhan alone with his very animated, very loquacious, very adorable tour guide.
He quietly walked with Wei Ying through a new hallway, continuing to provide what he desperately hoped were “positive sounds of attentive affirmation”, as his therapist dubbed them. In truth Lan Zhan could barely follow what the other man was talking about, with so much technical jargon permeating his sentences. He understood the basic premises of what Wei Ying was explaining, he was not a slow man by any means, but Wei Ying flitted from one topic to another so quickly he struggled to process one sentence before another three had begun.
Lan Zhan made the mental note to look up more about the game development process itself later that evening, and what things like ‘skinned-rig’, ‘forward deferred rendering’, and ‘vertex displacement’ meant. Regardless, he did come to the conclusion that it didn’t really matter what the ambulatory ball of energy next to him was saying - he’d happily soak in the sounds of his voice for hours on end.
Similarly, the slight pressure of the other man’s fingers delicately wrapped around his left arm he found new and distracting in a pleasant way. The sensations along his skin oscillated between tingling little chills and quick bursts of light static, frequently causing goosebumps to rise and ripple down his arm. Outside of his brother and uncle, physical touches initiated by another human almost always left his skin feeling slimy and oily, often accompanied by a nauseous, floating feeling in his stomach. None of these usual sensations accompanied Wei Ying’s warm touch, and Lan Zhan felt himself unexpectedly relaxing into sharing a non-family member’s company for the first time he could recall.
A sudden splash of wild colors invaded his private contemplations as he stumbled to an awkward halt in the middle of the hallway. Wei Ying walked another half step forward before he noticed that Lan Zhan was stuck standing rigid, staring with rapt attention at the oversized print pinned to the wall next to him. A vibrant landscape of verdant hills, craggy mountain tops, and waterfalls bursting through swirling rainbow pastel clouds assaulted his senses. Delicate flowering trees framed the foreground. Everything was rendered with quick and decisive, yet also soft, brush strokes. They suggested the forms in question as if they were encountered in a dream, rather than detailing them out in precise realism. This was now the second most beautiful thing Lan Zhan had seen in his life. He was utterly transfixed by it. A small post-it note applied to the bottom corner cryptically stated “Gusu Palette”.
“...Lan Zhan?” Wei Ying’s voice quieted next to him. Lan Zhan noted that a slight warble had entered the normally clear tone.
Pulling his eyes away from the wall, Lan Zhan made the mistake of glancing down at Wei Ying’s upturned face, and felt the words breathily tumble from himself before he could stop. “This is beautiful.”
The change in Wei Ying was instantaneous. His face practically glowed as it broke out into a dazzling smile which brought actual sparkles to his eyes. Lan Zhan had thought the first smile Wei Ying had gifted him was a precious treasure to keep and remember. This one somehow managed to be even more breathtaking.
“You really think so?!” Wei Ying was now gripping his forearm with both his hands and tugging as he jittered with visible excitement. Lan Zhan’s arm felt like it was practically on fire with the addition of Wei Ying’s extra fingers. He could only meekly nod in agreement, unable to exhale even a single ‘mn.’
“Oh my freaking gosh! You like my art? You’re not just saying that to be nice?!” Wei Ying’s silver eyes bore up into him, and it took all of Lan Zhan’s quickly dissipating confidence to continue to keep his gaze trained on the bridge of Wei Ying’s nose, and to not retreat it to the safety of the floor.
Eye contact was another one of those personal interaction ‘things’ Lan Zhan struggled with that others took for granted. Lan Zhan found it as deeply unsettling as being touched, perhaps even more so. It was too personal, too raw, too naked. Focusing his gaze instead on someone’s forehead or nose was one of the tricks he’d figured out that made life more bearable. Pretty much everyone thought he was making direct eye contact with them and couldn’t tell the difference.
“You…painted this?” Lan Zhan ripped his eyes away from Wei Ying’s impossibly perfect face to look back at the painting that had originally caused this unplanned turn of events. This was safe, and better than the floor. Paintings didn’t glow with twin beams of silver and sunlight. Paintings didn’t bounce or cause small electric shocks to travel up his back. Even a painting as stunning as this one.
“Sure did! I don’t have much time to do a lot of the arts now, but they do sometimes let me out of my cage to do the occasional mood or marketing piece.”
“You’re very talented.” The words were reckless, unplanned. Lan Zhan had barely even thought of them before they rushed from his mouth. He could physically feel their aftermath as a heavy weight hanging in the air around him.
There was only the space of a short breath before Wei Ying made some kind of inhuman piercing noise halfway between a squeal and scream. Lan Zhan physically jumped at the sound, equally confused and dismayed that he had said something so obviously upsetting that he’d caused the other man immediate distress. Maybe Wei Ying did not like compliments. Or perhaps he vehemently disliked this painting and was expressing his frustration that Lan Zhan knew nothing of how to judge art. Which was accurate. More to research.
Profound confusion overtook his dismay as Lan Zhan was forcefully manhandled up against the wall in front of the painting, with Wei Ying pressing up fully against his side. Half his body was now engulfed in a raging inferno as the smaller man continued to shift his weight against him, unaware of the increasingly dire consequences his actions were wreaking. Lan Zhan would have been impressed with how much strength the smaller man possessed had he any spare mental capacity that wasn’t devoted to tamping down the constricting tightness seizing his chest.
A burst of light exploded across his sight, ripping a small hiss from him as Lan Zhan shuttered his eyes from the sudden unwelcome onslaught.
“Sorry sorry! Fucking hell, stupid flash. One sec.” Wei Ying had his phone out in hand, stretched out in front of them, and was taking what appeared to be selfies of the two of them. He giggled at whatever he was seeing on the screen. Lan Zhan continued to try and blink his eyes back into focus. “Alright, just a couple more, I promise.” A few more swipes of his thumb across the screen and Wei Ying must have been satisfied with what he captured. He violently shoved his phone into his back pocket, spun around, and then held his newly emptied hand up to Lan Zhan’s face.
“Come on, your turn now.” He waited expectantly, blinking a few times, as the silence grew between them.
“...sorry?” Lan Zhan was completely at a loss. This was all becoming swiftly too much. Much too much. Did Wei Ying want him to take pictures instead? Shake his hand? Go back to walking? His eyes still hurt from the camera flash, and his insides ached. His predicament must have been visible on his face as Wei Ying laughed, a clear bright sound that echoed down the hallway, shaking his head so that the silken strands of his hair danced around his face.
“Your phone, silly. Have some faith, I’m not going to break it.” Wei Ying’s fingers made exaggerated grabby motions.
In a daze, Lan Zhan reached for the phone in his front pants pocket and placed it into Wei Ying’s upturned hand, his thumb gripping the side power button just enough to trigger the screen’s unlock sequence. Lan Zhan was trying very hard to avoid brushing his fingertips against the other man’s palm as he delivered the requested object. He didn’t think he could take any more casual contact against that golden skin without his knees buckling to the floor.
Wei Ying hummed to himself as he took the phone in both hands and quickly started to do…something with it, his thumbs flying across the screen. Only then did Lan Zhan start to reconsider that perhaps handing his phone to a near stranger was a Bad Idea, even if that stranger were the most beautiful person in the world. No, the most adorable person in the world, he corrected himself. He thought it important to mentally add the italics to emphasize the word, even in this situation.
“There! All finished!” Wei Ying beamed as he handed his phone back to him, a slight pinkish hue tinting his upper cheeks. Lan Zhan looked down at the phone screen and unconsciously gripped the plastic and metal shell tighter between his fingers. Displayed across the screen was a new chat history with a single message sent from his phone. A message Wei Ying must have sent himself from his phone.
🎮 Wei Ying! 🎨
Today 10:28 AM
This is Lan Zhan!!!! 😀 |
Wei Ying laughed again, running his hand through his bangs. “So yeah! Sorry I didn’t ask first, but that’s my contact information. Otherwise how am I supposed to send you your tour pics from today? You know, for posterity!”
Lan Zhan found his attention equally split between the utterly ridiculous “This is Lan Zhan!” message that he would never send, even upon threat of imminent bodily harm, and the overly enthusiastic exclamation point behind Wei Ying’s name.
The actual emoji use he thought was secretly brilliant as a means to identify the contact at an easy glance, and he made quick plans to replicate it across his modest contact list. But the exclamation point. Was Wei Ying loud in general? Was he excited to be a contact? He couldn’t help but mentally pronounce the word in Wei Ying’s trilling voice each time he read it, with all the exuberance befitting the provided punctuation.
A second message appeared as he continued the futile exercise of trying to piece together what was possibly going through the other man’s head.
| hiiii friend!!! say something already XD
Lan Zhan’s spine wracked with a sudden jolt upon reading the word “friend”. Were they friends? They just met, it could not possibly be more than fifteen minutes since he’d arrived. Lan Zhan examined the unfamiliar feeling growing in his chest and realized that he did very much want to be this man’s friend. Something however about that word didn’t quite fit right, but he squashed that down and ignored it. His head snapped upright and he gaped at Wei Ying, who was yet again bouncing on the balls of his feet. His own mobile was back in his hands, a mischievous grin plastered across his face. Wei Ying then winked at him.
“You…” Lan Zhan started, but he didn’t actually know what he wanted to say, letting the incomplete phrase sputter out and die like the last remains of his composure.
“Me!” Wei Ying all but shouted at him, grinning even wider. He laughed again and replaced his phone back in his pocket, before refolding himself around Lan Zhan’s arm. “I’ll do a couple of color corrections on those photos before I send them over later today. The lighting is so god awful in here. Makes all of us look like we’ve been dead for a week. Totes not flattering.”
Lan Zhan nodded in agreement as Wei Ying began to drag him down the hallway again. Fluorescents were definitely, “totes”, not flattering.
The forgotten weight of his violin at his back bumped into him as they began to move, and he silently cursed himself. He was here for a reason, a work reason, which had up to now, to his great embarrassment, completely forgotten. A slight crease formed between his eyebrows as he mentally reprimanded himself for how unprofessional he was being. And on his first day too. Ridiculous.
“So yeah, Sophie’s audio domain is just up ahead.” Wei Ying’s pace slowed and Lan Zhan felt the fingers around his arm twitch. “Um, I have to get back to work and all after I drop you off there. But, just so you know, you can text me when you’re done and I can swing by and escort you back out. That is, if you want. I know how confusing this building can be, and I practically live here.”
Lan Zhan looked down to find Wei Ying staring back up at him with slightly widened eyes, his teeth ever so gently biting into the plush pillow of his bottom lip. This had the extra effect of making the small mole below it slightly more visible than normal. Lan Zhan’s insides lurched.
“I… I would like that.” Lan Zhan mentally congratulated himself for being able to choke out any response at this point.
“Great! I mean, yeah, not a problem at all.” Wei Ying beamed again, and started to lead once more towards Ms. Lancaster’s office and her recording studio.