🌸 haoduoyu ficlets 🌸

🔹 All content are purely fictional.

🔸 May occasionally feature other INTO1 members or CZY21 trainees.

🔹 May occasionally post hdy edits and/or artwork.

🔸 Please do not repost/claim content as your own.

It's up! Go read! Be merry! And don't forget your dentist appointments~! 🤭😘🌸✨

Sneaking out of palace walls, as a statement on its own, sounds much an impossible task. For a certain young prince, however, it's all about knowing how to talk one's way out of impossible situations.

"You're lucky you're loved," his aide often says in affectionate exasperation.

Liuyu knows he's taking full advantage, but is it so wrong when there's no harm done? Tonight is no exception, and Liuyu talks his way out into the gardens.

And as he basks in the sight of the pearlescent moon glimmering in starlit skies, a movement to the side catches his eye.

There amongst the night blooms stands a statuesque man with hands folded in his robes, a serene expression upon his gleaming face.

Liuyu smiles as he steps close enough for the man to look away from the stars and gaze upon him in delight instead.

"What took you so long, love?"

"Will you stop fidgeting?"

"...it's ticklish when you do it!"

Santa laughs as Liuyu huffs in response, the beginnings of a deadly pout forming in the corners of his mouth. It's endearing, he thinks, how easily Liuyu slips into his emotions in private moments such as this.

He watches as Liuyu exhales slowly. Sensing one of his (ridiculously cute) tirades incoming, Santa leans forward to place a quick kiss on Liuyu's lips with a loud, exaggerated smack.

"What if I say I can't keep myself still because I'm bursting with so much love for you?"

"Gross!"

Liuyu pauses, and as Santa merely flashes him an intentionally cheeky smile in return, he gives in with a shake of his head as he continues artfully brushing eyeshadow across the bridge of Santa's nose.

"Say more things like that."

Santa thinks the world blushes in pastel blue, as though the oceans are swaths of soft silks rising into a tender cocoon, whenever he's alone with Liuyu.

It's safe and gentle, and Liuyu's smile and scent is the buzzing warmth under his skin.

And it's the way this Liuyu has no want or desire, that he only has to tuck into him, head resting on chest, and Santa is willing to pull the stars from the heavens just to weave them into Liuyu's hair.

"All I need is you," Liuyu murmurs, arms possessive around Santa's waist.

He smiles, kisses his forehead as Liuyu's lips flit across his mind in vignettes and romantic static. "You have to eat sometime, love."

"Mm." It's a non-response, and Santa knows they need to settle on dinner soon. But Liuyu is warm and the world is calm, all wrapped up in blue.

Santa swears he doesn't try to put himself in cheesy situations. It's a coincidence, he tells himself, when the clouds burst open the moment he steps out of the café for a much needed caffeine jolt in between cram sessions.

Just pure luck, that the person scurrying under the entrance awning right next to him for shelter happens to be a boy living down the hall from his dorm - the very same boy he's been secretly crushing from afar the past year.

Santa weighs his options, and when the boy simply stares out at the heavy downpour with a slight pout instead of going into the café, he finds himself nudging at the other's elbow tentatively with his half-opened umbrella.

"Liuyu, right?"

Santa tries not to keel over when Liuyu's face - small, soft and flushed behind dripping black bangs - turns towards him. A minute later, Santa finds out Liuyu has no sense of personal space and he feels like a damn king with Liuyu clinging so close and warm at his side.

Liuyu offers tea, and Santa decides studying can wait a little. What he doesn't expect is for Liuyu to stifle a yawn mid-sentence at sunrise and realise they'd been chatting comfortably all night long.

He apologises for overstaying, and Liuyu dismisses it with a dazzling smile.

"Next time, we'll do this over a nice meal," Liuyu promises, and Santa wonders as he leaves if this giddiness is a side effect of being so close to the sun.

Santa pauses, then groans inwardly, hoping a few hours of sleep before his next class is enough to de-cheese his thoughts.

When Santa wakes up to the sound of rummaging in his closet for the third day in a row, he groans out loud, rolling sluggishly over.

"I can see you," he mumbles with eyes still closed, mistaking one verb for another in his half-asleep state.

The thin scrape of hangers ceases, replaced by a light chuckle. His mattress dips, and the scent of freshly shampooed hair fills his senses.

"Good. Now wake up and tell me I can borrow this shirt."

Santa squints an eye open, tries and fails to glower at a smiling Liuyu.

Sunlight glints off the metal on his neck and Santa softens, reaching up. Liuyu lands with a yelp. He mutters about being glad they're not roommates, and Liuyu replies with a soft peck on his cheek.

"Not even for this morning call?"

Santa's eyes fly open, suddenly wide awake.

He isn't being hermitic, Liuyu reasons with an unconscious pout of his lips as he gently, with much reluctance, vetoes Santa's suggestion for a day of fun out in the sun.

"Of course I love spending time with you, I just... had other plans for today, is all."

He sees the gears turning in Santa's mind, and tries to surreptitiously nudge the laundry basket behind him with the edge of his foot.

It backfires, of course.

The subtle movement catches Santa's attention, and Liuyu eventually relents, giving in to Santa's offer to help.

Liuyu tries his best not to laugh as Santa picks up various items while wondering aloud why his clothes are in Liuyu's laundry.

He doesn't explain wearing Santa's shirts to sleep, particularly on nights they're cities apart - that the fading scent feels comfortingly like home.

When Liuyu is exhausted, Santa quickly learns, he talks in his sleep.

Here on a shared schedule apart from the team, they're assigned a small suite to share - a first as roommates. Santa's amused when Liuyu hands him a set of earplugs and warns he might snore.

But sometime between midnight and dawn, Santa stirs to a soft murmur coming from the bed on the other side of the room. It takes him a moment to blink through the haze of sleep.

"Beware the frog."

Santa's eyebrows rise, wondering if his Mandarin is just that terrible.

He quickly stifles his laugh as Liuyu continues semi-coherently, "... the cars are happy."

A moment later, Liuyu whines softly.

"Santa don't race me..."

Smiling, he lets Liuyu's gentle snoring lull him back to sleep, deciding to question Liuyu about his dreams in the morning.

The first time they meet, Liuyu thinks nothing more of it than a cute encounter.

The customer, all sharp angles and soft centers, attempting a conversation in the middle of the puppy chow aisle in broken Mandarin had made him laugh in an otherwise boring shift at the pet store.

But when he makes a third visit in two weeks, Liuyu finds himself unreasonably annoyed at being stuck at the cashier while his co-worker serves Squishy Smile.

He grumbles inwardly as he speeds up the transaction. What he doesn't expect, is for Squishy Smile to pop up next.

"Puppy!"

Liuyu freezes, wonders if he spoke out loud, only to realise that the man is pointing at the toy he's buying, presumably for his dog. He tries not to grin too widely, only to hear a giggle as the man points again, this time at his ear.

"Ah... red.. 𝘬𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘪...!"

It wasn't planned, Santa tells himself, when Liuyu shows up in class one day wearing the exact same necklace he himself had just purchased over the weekend.

Santa takes pride in excelling at many varied skills, but mind reading is far from being one of them.

Santa fiddles with the pendant hanging from his own neck, internally debating if it's too late to take it off, even if his toes curl at the idea of matching accessories with Liuyu.

His friends already tease him mercilessly for his crush on Liuyu, and Santa tires at the idea.

Buried in thought, Santa barely notices the end of class and the hand surreptitiously slipping a piece of paper onto his desk. He looks up, catching the quick smile cast his way, and stares in shock at the note in front of him.

'𝘐𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 ♡ - 𝘓𝘠'

It happens on a Friday evening at the office.

With a midnight deadline, Santa barely notices his hunger when the mingling scents precedes the knock on his door. He opens it to a welcoming vision: the new guy, soft and sweet and smelling so enticing with a hot bowl of noodles.

Santa gratefully takes him out for drinks when they finish with an hour to spare, quickly learns how much he loves the way his name sounds on Liuyu's tongue.

Liuyu, a lightweight, matches him drink for drink, and passes out curled at his side before he can ask for his address.

The weekend passes in a softly hued haze of hangovers, late lunches and dozing off to trashy tv where Liuyu remains content at his side, dwarfed in one of his old hoodies.

Santa smiles at the sight, and decides not to question fate for connecting him with his mate this easily.

Realistic emotions are part of an upgrade package that Santa couldn't afford - something that he hasn't really worried when gifted with an AI to assist his dance classes. Liuyu's stoicism neither helps nor hinders his students, so Santa keeps his admiration to a bare minimum.

As months pass and Santa pays more attention, he begins to suspect a profound sadness brimming beneath the surface of his AI.

He decides to bring Liuyu home one night instead of leaving him powered down in the cold studio. His intention is to study, to ask what he doesn't know.

Liuyu inspects his living room with little interest and Santa thinks perhaps he imagined it, after all.

His heart breaks, however, when Liuyu takes a long look at his bedroom, then slowly turns to him with incredible pain in his eyes as he softly asks, "why am I not human, too?"

"Trust me."

Santa frowns, gritting his teeth as he tries not to think of the sting of alcohol. He's no stranger to injuries (they're an unfortunate part of his life as a dancer), yet each new one always hurts more than it should and he thinks maybe he's getting too old for this.

"And stop wriggling!"

He snaps back to reality at the hand firm on his thigh, and Santa blinks down at Liuyu. This angel, who immediately ushered him into the bathroom with a first aid kit upon reaching home. This angel, selflessly ignoring his own hunger just to tend to Santa.

Returning the worried smile on Liuyu's lips, Santa nods, stilling his legs as he reaches out to trace the matching mark right underneath Liuyu's eye. He remembers Liuyu teaching him the word 'soulmate' because of it, and wonders how best to repay this kindness.

"Sorry, love."