You Think You're So Great, Right? (Epilogue)
( part 1) ( part 2)
„Yifan, get your lazy ass down here and help!“
It was a nice day, really, all in all, not half as hot as the previous days had been, with a light breeze blowing. Still, Yixing couldn’t really bring himself to properly enjoy the nice weather, and while others might have almost considered it a bit chilly outside, exertion had his blood rush through his veins fast enough to keep him rather warm. He almost wished he had gone with one of his sleeveless wifebeaters instead of a t-shirt that day.
Yixing waited for an answer, but none was to be heard. Only an equally drenched looking Luhan came stomping down the stairs, responding to his friend’s questioning glance with a shrug.
Shaking his head in exasperation-he wasn’t entirely sure if the gesture was a slightly pissed-off or a fond one-Yixing grabbed one of the smaller bags, and made his way up the stairs, passing Minseok and acknowledging the elder with a grateful smile. Luhan’s fiancé had carried more heavy boxes up than all their other helpers combined.
The door to their new flat stood wide open, a few moving boxes still standing outside in the stairway, most of them already stacked inside in the hallway though.
“Yifan, don’t you act deaf now. Everyone’s working hard hauling all our stuff upstairs.” He called into the flat. There were noises coming from the back, so he decided to follow after them, dropping the bag he had carried alongside the rest of their piled up stuff.
He passed Tao and Sehun arguing in the living room about how the television had to be set up, and where the best placement for the couch would be, Baekhyun watching them from the distance with an amused grin on his face. For a moment he contemplated stopping and telling the couple it was okay, he and Yifan would take care of all the furniture. But then again there were more pressing matters at hand.
“Yifan, you lazy bum.” He declared, arms crossed in front of his chest and the best judging expression he could manage on his face as he leaned against the doorframe of what was going to be their bedroom.
His boyfriend looked up from where he was sitting on the floor, an opened box containing his plushies beside him. Apparently the taller male was in the middle of sorting his little collection into the shelf in front of him, as if to properly display them. Knowing Yifan and how fond he was of his plushies, it was entirely possible.
The elder took a moment to study Yixing’s expression and posture, then pulled his own features into a pout. “But I’ve only just finished putting all the shelves together.” He whined, apparently hoping that acting cute would get him out of carrying duty.
Yixing was having none of it though. “It is you who reads all these self-help books, so it’s your responsibility to carry them up as well. This is our move, and everyone’s helping out more than we should expect them to. So get up, we’ll do all the unboxing later. Now it’s time to get all the stuff up here.”
With a long suffering sigh Yifan rose, dusting off his pants.
As he was about to pass Yixing, the younger caught his arm, pulling the taller body close enough that he could tiptoe to Yifan’s ear. “And the sooner we have all our stuff up here we can send everyone away.”
They managed to get the rest of their stuff into the flat in near record time, and Yixing was more than happy to sink down on the couch in their living room as soon as all their friends had been seen off. It was one of the only pieces of furniture already setup, their bed still nothing but a mattress on the floor, a few cupboards and shelves scattered throughout the flat.
Uncaring of that Yixing felt a rush of giddiness. This was his and Yifan’s first shared flat, and despite how they had practically been living at each other’s places already the last few years, this felt like a big step.
-o-
The next few days were spent properly furnishing all rooms, together with unpacking and decorating.
Yifan was working setting up the last pieces of furniture in the bedroom while Yixing was busy in the living room with the last few moving boxes left. Across one of them Yifan had scrawled a wonderfully nondescript “various”. Sighing to himself about Yifan’s lack of expressive labeling, Yixing curiously cut it open.
It mostly contained Yifan’s trinkets, the small dragon figurines the taller loved to collect, some old basketball trophies, and a ton more small decorative items.
Beneath that was a layer of photo albums and loose photographs, and when Yifan eventually came from the bedroom to join Yixing with the unboxing, he found his boyfriend surrounded by old photos, smiling to himself while he leafed through one of the albums.
“Well, I see you’re working hard.” He noted teasingly, flopping down opposite of Yixing.
At the sound Yixing’s head whipped up, and when he saw Yifan his smile only deepened, pronouncing his dimple further. “I was, but you can’t honestly expect me stay focused when there are these gems to look at.” He raised a stack of photos for emphasis.
Yifan was about to retort something, but seemed to change his mind in the last moment and stayed silent, conceding to indulging himself in memories for a bit.
The silence was broken when Yixing emitted a small surprised exclaim. It had Yifan lift his gaze from where he had been occupied with pictures from their last vacation.
“Oh.” He softly said in recognition as he saw what Yixing was holding, a small box containing dozens of envelopes. A slight blush formed on his face when he saw the hint of a delighted grin on Yixing’s face.
Instead of acknowledging Yifan, Yixing took out the letters, recognizing all the post cards he had written his boyfriend back in school, when he was on vacation with his parents, or the letters he wrote when the taller had studied abroad for a semester.
It had been a hard time for them. He recalled the longing, and just barely resisted opening the envelope to go over the letter again.
Despite how many difficulties Yixing had had with writing Yifan his first card all those years back on Valentine’s Day, he actually loved letters. There was something authentic about ink on paper. It was an effort to write a letter, more meaningful than just writing a quick text or a mail.
Yifan agreed with him-he was the “more romantic” (read sappy) one of the two either way-and thus they had amassed quite a lot of letters over the time.
Their task of putting the finishing touches on their flat was forgotten as Yixing delved deeper and deeper into the past, until something at the bottom of the box caught his eye.
He leaned forward, fishing the small packet out. It was tied together with a lavender cord, the individual envelopes being brightly decorated with hearts and drawings.
Yixing tilted his head slightly to the side in thought, because there was something prickling at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t put a finger to it. It was only when he spotted the plain white envelope, standing out starkly among the rest, that it clicked. Involuntarily his cheeks flushed as he looked up at Yifan.
“Why did you keep those?” He demanded, indignation mixed into his voice to cover the embarrassment.
Yifan looked confused at first at Yixing’s tone, then his eyes fell on what Yixing was holding and recognition hushed over his face, immediately followed by a slightly guilty looking smile.
“Oh, these. I swear, I already forgot they were there.”
“That’s no answer to my question. I mean, I get it that you kept my card, but why did you keep all the love letters from other people?”
Yifan fidgeted with his hands, a gesture of nervousness. “Well, I didn’t know what to do with them back then. It felt wrong to simply discard them, when they contained people’s genuine feelings. It would have been disrespectful. I didn’t keep anything that wasn’t from you after we got together though, I promise!” He was quick to reassure the smaller, then halted, as if he had leapt into an explanation without properly processing what Yixing had said. “Wait, your letter?”
The blush on Yixing’s cheeks deepened as he realized that Yifan hadn’t even known that one of the Valentine’s cards from back then had been his. Now that he thought about it, the topic had never come up for him to tell Yifan.
In an attempt to hide his embarrassing words from highschool, Yixing attempted to shove the letters back into the box, but Yifan caught his hands, fishing the letter from Yixing’s hands. With an alarmingly determined motion he fished the white one out.
“This one, right? This one is yours.” The taller sounded strangely confident for someone who was supposed to not even know of the existence
of Yixing’s card, but then again back then Yixing had certainly not been the type for gaudy decorations. It wasn’t really hard to pick out which letter was most likely his, and which were form the teenage girls.
Reasoning that there was no use in denying it, Yixing just nodded. When Yifan opened the envelope however to take the card out and read it, the smaller launched forward in an attempt to stop his boyfriend. He couldn’t even remember what exactly he had written, but memory of the burn of embarrassment he had felt when writing the card back then was still clear in his mind. His highschool-self had been mortified about writing such cheesy words.
Yifan didn’t listen to his pleas however, instead using his height to an advance as he held the card out of Yixing’s reach. The younger had to helplessly watch Yifan’s mouth pulling wider and wider into a grin as he read the lines that were almost six years old.
Eventually he gave up trying to snatch the card, since it was obviously too late either way. Instead he turned to sulk, arms crossed in front of his chest.
It didn’t take Yifan long to finish reading, and as soon as he was done he lurched forward, engulfing Yixing in a tight hug.
In a way the smaller wanted to pout for a bit longer, but he found he couldn’t resist Yifan, so he relaxed in his boyfriend’s hold.
“So I have many reasons to think I’m great? Gosh, you are the cutest.” Yifan declared when he pulled back to grin at Yixing, pure bliss and adoration written on his features. “A bit difficult at times but still the cutest. If only I would have known you were this in love with me back then already…”
“It would only have fostered your ego further, we couldn’t have had that.” Yixing playfully chided, but felt his mouth pull into a smile nonetheless, though the blush was still burning on his cheeks.
Yifan seemed to contemplate whether to retort, but instead he chose to lean in to press his lips to Yixing’s gently. “I love you, Zhang Yixing. Thank you for writing me a card back then. It’s a thank you long overdue, but I love it.” He said when he pulled back a bit, smiling fondly, and this time it was Yixing moving for a kiss, since he reasoned he was better at conveying his feelings like this.
They remained like that for a bit, exchanging slow, unhurried kisses, and Yixing didn’t even mind their not entirely comfortable sitting position on the floor.
After they pulled apart, and Yifan let go of him, the taller’s gaze wandered to the card he was still holding in his hand again. Yixing felt his skin crawl slightly in embarrassment at the reminder of the card’s existence, but at the same time he couldn’t help the fond chuckle escaping him at the sight of the stupid smile on his boyfriend’s face.
Suddenly the taller’s head whipped up to face Yixing, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “Hey, do you still have my Valentine’s card from back then?”
“Of course I do.” The younger huffed in indignation. As if he would lose or discard the first ever love letter he got from Yifan. “Why?”
Instead of answering Yifan just grinned at him mischievously.
-o-
“This is the worst.” Yixing judged, cheeks still flushed as he threw a glance at the picture frame above their bed. Two ridiculously gaudy cards were trapped behind the glass, the pink-red-purple heart design standing out against the light orange of the wall.
“This is us.” Yifan argued, stepping behind Yixing to wrap his arms around the smaller body. Bending down he pressed a gentle kiss to Yixing’s neck, but he was careful not to exhale and startle the younger so the only reaction he got was a gentle shiver. “This is our beginning. It’s why we’re here right now.”
“But do we have to put them up? They are so old.” Yixing whined, while at the same time leaning back into Yifan, his own hands coming up to cover Yifan’s large ones on his waist. “…and embarrassing.” He added silently, almost like an afterthoughts.
“But that’s all the more reason to put them up!” Yifan whispered, moving closer to Yixing’s ear. He was trying to use seduction to make Yixing agree. And sadly enough Yixing found that it was working as his pulse picked up slightly.
“I mean, this is the first letter you ever wrote me. It’s your confession. And six years passed in which I couldn’t read it over and over again, so now I need quick access to make up for that time.” A gush of hot breath ghosted over Yixing’s skin with every word Yifan spoke. A part of his mind wondered how it could even feel hot in comparison, when his cheeks were already burning.
“You are so sappy.” Yixing retorted weakly, tilting his head slightly to give Yifan better access for his ministrations.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly a secret from the beginning.” Yifan reasoned with a light chuckle. “I mean, you knew of my Valentine’s card.”
Yixing hummed in affirmation. “Now that you mention it, I probably should have seen it coming.”
The younger turned in Yifan’s hold to look at his boyfriend. The other had changed so much in all these years, and yet Yixing could still clearly see the boy from school, the popular basketball captain who was incredibly shy and awkward all along. He leaned forward to press a gentle kiss on Yifan’s lips, almost a sign of relenting. “Okay, we’re gonna keep them up for a month. Then you’ll have time to marvel at my card, and afterwards we’ll put it away. Into a box again, or something.”
Yixing could tell from the set of Yifan’s eyebrows, the pull of his mouth, and the expression in his eyes that the taller was only humming his consent because he didn’t want to argue further about the matter. But when Yifan leaned down to capture his lips in a real kiss this time, he accepted the diversion.
“You know, it was hard work to put up that bed, perhaps we should test if I did it correctly.” The taller murmured, moving to nip at Yixing’s neck again.
Yixing chuckled, tightening his fingers slightly in Yifan’s shirt. “So subtle.” He said, teasingly, leaning back until he could catch Yifan’s gaze. “Another thing I should have known from the beginning: You’re just trying to get into my pants.”
“Not true.” Yifan retorted, all serious for a moment before his features quickly morphed into a lopsided grin. “I was trying to get into your rental contract.”
Yixing burst out laughing, the sound reverberating form the walls and his eyes drawing into slits. The taller just watched him laugh in his arms, a fond look in his eyes and a happy smile on his lips.
“Well, then congratulations, seems you finally were successful.” Yixing said, as soon as he had calmed down enough that his laughter had toned down to a grin.
“Seems I was.” The taller agreed, and when he leaned down this time, neither of them pulled away again to talk.
The cards didn’t disappear again after a month though. They kept their place directly over their bed’s headbord.
Yifan would coo at them whenever he saw them, about how “His Xingie is so in love with him and has been smitten right from the beginning.”, not once failing to get Yixing all flustered.
With flaming red cheeks the younger would threaten to burn the card if Yifan wouldn’t stop, but Yifan always found a way to stop the younger from following through on the threat. Most often aegyo was involved, and Yixing would be too busy laughing at how stupid the taller looked to remember the cards.
(And just perhaps Yixing would take out Yifan’s card himself occasionally to read it. Only when Yifan wasn’t around of course, and therefore couldn’t rub it in that Yixing was just as fond of Yifan’s first love letter as the other was of Yixing’s.
Just perhaps.
Yixing wasn’t as sappy as his boyfriend after all.
But perhaps.)
(And there was the off-chance that Yifan would still be able to tell whenever Yixing had sneaked a glance at the card. Because he knew Yixing. And he could be more sneaky than the smaller gave him credit for.
But he wouldn’t tell Yixing.
Because as much as he enjoyed Yixing being flustered, he enjoyed the fond, love-struck, content smile the smaller wore whenever he looked at Yifan after reading his Valentine’s card even more.)
~.~.~.~.~
A/N: I'm sorry, I'm starting to think I'm not so great at this writing thing. I've had this epilogue-thingy in my WIP folder for a while, because a few people were wondering about Yifan's reaction to Yixing's letter, and I felt as if I left quite some open ends, so this is my attempt at closure.
„Yifan, get your lazy ass down here and help!“
It was a nice day, really, all in all, not half as hot as the previous days had been, with a light breeze blowing. Still, Yixing couldn’t really bring himself to properly enjoy the nice weather, and while others might have almost considered it a bit chilly outside, exertion had his blood rush through his veins fast enough to keep him rather warm. He almost wished he had gone with one of his sleeveless wifebeaters instead of a t-shirt that day.
Yixing waited for an answer, but none was to be heard. Only an equally drenched looking Luhan came stomping down the stairs, responding to his friend’s questioning glance with a shrug.
Shaking his head in exasperation-he wasn’t entirely sure if the gesture was a slightly pissed-off or a fond one-Yixing grabbed one of the smaller bags, and made his way up the stairs, passing Minseok and acknowledging the elder with a grateful smile. Luhan’s fiancé had carried more heavy boxes up than all their other helpers combined.
The door to their new flat stood wide open, a few moving boxes still standing outside in the stairway, most of them already stacked inside in the hallway though.
“Yifan, don’t you act deaf now. Everyone’s working hard hauling all our stuff upstairs.” He called into the flat. There were noises coming from the back, so he decided to follow after them, dropping the bag he had carried alongside the rest of their piled up stuff.
He passed Tao and Sehun arguing in the living room about how the television had to be set up, and where the best placement for the couch would be, Baekhyun watching them from the distance with an amused grin on his face. For a moment he contemplated stopping and telling the couple it was okay, he and Yifan would take care of all the furniture. But then again there were more pressing matters at hand.
“Yifan, you lazy bum.” He declared, arms crossed in front of his chest and the best judging expression he could manage on his face as he leaned against the doorframe of what was going to be their bedroom.
His boyfriend looked up from where he was sitting on the floor, an opened box containing his plushies beside him. Apparently the taller male was in the middle of sorting his little collection into the shelf in front of him, as if to properly display them. Knowing Yifan and how fond he was of his plushies, it was entirely possible.
The elder took a moment to study Yixing’s expression and posture, then pulled his own features into a pout. “But I’ve only just finished putting all the shelves together.” He whined, apparently hoping that acting cute would get him out of carrying duty.
Yixing was having none of it though. “It is you who reads all these self-help books, so it’s your responsibility to carry them up as well. This is our move, and everyone’s helping out more than we should expect them to. So get up, we’ll do all the unboxing later. Now it’s time to get all the stuff up here.”
With a long suffering sigh Yifan rose, dusting off his pants.
As he was about to pass Yixing, the younger caught his arm, pulling the taller body close enough that he could tiptoe to Yifan’s ear. “And the sooner we have all our stuff up here we can send everyone away.”
They managed to get the rest of their stuff into the flat in near record time, and Yixing was more than happy to sink down on the couch in their living room as soon as all their friends had been seen off. It was one of the only pieces of furniture already setup, their bed still nothing but a mattress on the floor, a few cupboards and shelves scattered throughout the flat.
Uncaring of that Yixing felt a rush of giddiness. This was his and Yifan’s first shared flat, and despite how they had practically been living at each other’s places already the last few years, this felt like a big step.
-o-
The next few days were spent properly furnishing all rooms, together with unpacking and decorating.
Yifan was working setting up the last pieces of furniture in the bedroom while Yixing was busy in the living room with the last few moving boxes left. Across one of them Yifan had scrawled a wonderfully nondescript “various”. Sighing to himself about Yifan’s lack of expressive labeling, Yixing curiously cut it open.
It mostly contained Yifan’s trinkets, the small dragon figurines the taller loved to collect, some old basketball trophies, and a ton more small decorative items.
Beneath that was a layer of photo albums and loose photographs, and when Yifan eventually came from the bedroom to join Yixing with the unboxing, he found his boyfriend surrounded by old photos, smiling to himself while he leafed through one of the albums.
“Well, I see you’re working hard.” He noted teasingly, flopping down opposite of Yixing.
At the sound Yixing’s head whipped up, and when he saw Yifan his smile only deepened, pronouncing his dimple further. “I was, but you can’t honestly expect me stay focused when there are these gems to look at.” He raised a stack of photos for emphasis.
Yifan was about to retort something, but seemed to change his mind in the last moment and stayed silent, conceding to indulging himself in memories for a bit.
The silence was broken when Yixing emitted a small surprised exclaim. It had Yifan lift his gaze from where he had been occupied with pictures from their last vacation.
“Oh.” He softly said in recognition as he saw what Yixing was holding, a small box containing dozens of envelopes. A slight blush formed on his face when he saw the hint of a delighted grin on Yixing’s face.
Instead of acknowledging Yifan, Yixing took out the letters, recognizing all the post cards he had written his boyfriend back in school, when he was on vacation with his parents, or the letters he wrote when the taller had studied abroad for a semester.
It had been a hard time for them. He recalled the longing, and just barely resisted opening the envelope to go over the letter again.
Despite how many difficulties Yixing had had with writing Yifan his first card all those years back on Valentine’s Day, he actually loved letters. There was something authentic about ink on paper. It was an effort to write a letter, more meaningful than just writing a quick text or a mail.
Yifan agreed with him-he was the “more romantic” (read sappy) one of the two either way-and thus they had amassed quite a lot of letters over the time.
Their task of putting the finishing touches on their flat was forgotten as Yixing delved deeper and deeper into the past, until something at the bottom of the box caught his eye.
He leaned forward, fishing the small packet out. It was tied together with a lavender cord, the individual envelopes being brightly decorated with hearts and drawings.
Yixing tilted his head slightly to the side in thought, because there was something prickling at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t put a finger to it. It was only when he spotted the plain white envelope, standing out starkly among the rest, that it clicked. Involuntarily his cheeks flushed as he looked up at Yifan.
“Why did you keep those?” He demanded, indignation mixed into his voice to cover the embarrassment.
Yifan looked confused at first at Yixing’s tone, then his eyes fell on what Yixing was holding and recognition hushed over his face, immediately followed by a slightly guilty looking smile.
“Oh, these. I swear, I already forgot they were there.”
“That’s no answer to my question. I mean, I get it that you kept my card, but why did you keep all the love letters from other people?”
Yifan fidgeted with his hands, a gesture of nervousness. “Well, I didn’t know what to do with them back then. It felt wrong to simply discard them, when they contained people’s genuine feelings. It would have been disrespectful. I didn’t keep anything that wasn’t from you after we got together though, I promise!” He was quick to reassure the smaller, then halted, as if he had leapt into an explanation without properly processing what Yixing had said. “Wait, your letter?”
The blush on Yixing’s cheeks deepened as he realized that Yifan hadn’t even known that one of the Valentine’s cards from back then had been his. Now that he thought about it, the topic had never come up for him to tell Yifan.
In an attempt to hide his embarrassing words from highschool, Yixing attempted to shove the letters back into the box, but Yifan caught his hands, fishing the letter from Yixing’s hands. With an alarmingly determined motion he fished the white one out.
“This one, right? This one is yours.” The taller sounded strangely confident for someone who was supposed to not even know of the existence
of Yixing’s card, but then again back then Yixing had certainly not been the type for gaudy decorations. It wasn’t really hard to pick out which letter was most likely his, and which were form the teenage girls.
Reasoning that there was no use in denying it, Yixing just nodded. When Yifan opened the envelope however to take the card out and read it, the smaller launched forward in an attempt to stop his boyfriend. He couldn’t even remember what exactly he had written, but memory of the burn of embarrassment he had felt when writing the card back then was still clear in his mind. His highschool-self had been mortified about writing such cheesy words.
Yifan didn’t listen to his pleas however, instead using his height to an advance as he held the card out of Yixing’s reach. The younger had to helplessly watch Yifan’s mouth pulling wider and wider into a grin as he read the lines that were almost six years old.
Eventually he gave up trying to snatch the card, since it was obviously too late either way. Instead he turned to sulk, arms crossed in front of his chest.
It didn’t take Yifan long to finish reading, and as soon as he was done he lurched forward, engulfing Yixing in a tight hug.
In a way the smaller wanted to pout for a bit longer, but he found he couldn’t resist Yifan, so he relaxed in his boyfriend’s hold.
“So I have many reasons to think I’m great? Gosh, you are the cutest.” Yifan declared when he pulled back to grin at Yixing, pure bliss and adoration written on his features. “A bit difficult at times but still the cutest. If only I would have known you were this in love with me back then already…”
“It would only have fostered your ego further, we couldn’t have had that.” Yixing playfully chided, but felt his mouth pull into a smile nonetheless, though the blush was still burning on his cheeks.
Yifan seemed to contemplate whether to retort, but instead he chose to lean in to press his lips to Yixing’s gently. “I love you, Zhang Yixing. Thank you for writing me a card back then. It’s a thank you long overdue, but I love it.” He said when he pulled back a bit, smiling fondly, and this time it was Yixing moving for a kiss, since he reasoned he was better at conveying his feelings like this.
They remained like that for a bit, exchanging slow, unhurried kisses, and Yixing didn’t even mind their not entirely comfortable sitting position on the floor.
After they pulled apart, and Yifan let go of him, the taller’s gaze wandered to the card he was still holding in his hand again. Yixing felt his skin crawl slightly in embarrassment at the reminder of the card’s existence, but at the same time he couldn’t help the fond chuckle escaping him at the sight of the stupid smile on his boyfriend’s face.
Suddenly the taller’s head whipped up to face Yixing, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “Hey, do you still have my Valentine’s card from back then?”
“Of course I do.” The younger huffed in indignation. As if he would lose or discard the first ever love letter he got from Yifan. “Why?”
Instead of answering Yifan just grinned at him mischievously.
-o-
“This is the worst.” Yixing judged, cheeks still flushed as he threw a glance at the picture frame above their bed. Two ridiculously gaudy cards were trapped behind the glass, the pink-red-purple heart design standing out against the light orange of the wall.
“This is us.” Yifan argued, stepping behind Yixing to wrap his arms around the smaller body. Bending down he pressed a gentle kiss to Yixing’s neck, but he was careful not to exhale and startle the younger so the only reaction he got was a gentle shiver. “This is our beginning. It’s why we’re here right now.”
“But do we have to put them up? They are so old.” Yixing whined, while at the same time leaning back into Yifan, his own hands coming up to cover Yifan’s large ones on his waist. “…and embarrassing.” He added silently, almost like an afterthoughts.
“But that’s all the more reason to put them up!” Yifan whispered, moving closer to Yixing’s ear. He was trying to use seduction to make Yixing agree. And sadly enough Yixing found that it was working as his pulse picked up slightly.
“I mean, this is the first letter you ever wrote me. It’s your confession. And six years passed in which I couldn’t read it over and over again, so now I need quick access to make up for that time.” A gush of hot breath ghosted over Yixing’s skin with every word Yifan spoke. A part of his mind wondered how it could even feel hot in comparison, when his cheeks were already burning.
“You are so sappy.” Yixing retorted weakly, tilting his head slightly to give Yifan better access for his ministrations.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly a secret from the beginning.” Yifan reasoned with a light chuckle. “I mean, you knew of my Valentine’s card.”
Yixing hummed in affirmation. “Now that you mention it, I probably should have seen it coming.”
The younger turned in Yifan’s hold to look at his boyfriend. The other had changed so much in all these years, and yet Yixing could still clearly see the boy from school, the popular basketball captain who was incredibly shy and awkward all along. He leaned forward to press a gentle kiss on Yifan’s lips, almost a sign of relenting. “Okay, we’re gonna keep them up for a month. Then you’ll have time to marvel at my card, and afterwards we’ll put it away. Into a box again, or something.”
Yixing could tell from the set of Yifan’s eyebrows, the pull of his mouth, and the expression in his eyes that the taller was only humming his consent because he didn’t want to argue further about the matter. But when Yifan leaned down to capture his lips in a real kiss this time, he accepted the diversion.
“You know, it was hard work to put up that bed, perhaps we should test if I did it correctly.” The taller murmured, moving to nip at Yixing’s neck again.
Yixing chuckled, tightening his fingers slightly in Yifan’s shirt. “So subtle.” He said, teasingly, leaning back until he could catch Yifan’s gaze. “Another thing I should have known from the beginning: You’re just trying to get into my pants.”
“Not true.” Yifan retorted, all serious for a moment before his features quickly morphed into a lopsided grin. “I was trying to get into your rental contract.”
Yixing burst out laughing, the sound reverberating form the walls and his eyes drawing into slits. The taller just watched him laugh in his arms, a fond look in his eyes and a happy smile on his lips.
“Well, then congratulations, seems you finally were successful.” Yixing said, as soon as he had calmed down enough that his laughter had toned down to a grin.
“Seems I was.” The taller agreed, and when he leaned down this time, neither of them pulled away again to talk.
The cards didn’t disappear again after a month though. They kept their place directly over their bed’s headbord.
Yifan would coo at them whenever he saw them, about how “His Xingie is so in love with him and has been smitten right from the beginning.”, not once failing to get Yixing all flustered.
With flaming red cheeks the younger would threaten to burn the card if Yifan wouldn’t stop, but Yifan always found a way to stop the younger from following through on the threat. Most often aegyo was involved, and Yixing would be too busy laughing at how stupid the taller looked to remember the cards.
(And just perhaps Yixing would take out Yifan’s card himself occasionally to read it. Only when Yifan wasn’t around of course, and therefore couldn’t rub it in that Yixing was just as fond of Yifan’s first love letter as the other was of Yixing’s.
Just perhaps.
Yixing wasn’t as sappy as his boyfriend after all.
But perhaps.)
(And there was the off-chance that Yifan would still be able to tell whenever Yixing had sneaked a glance at the card. Because he knew Yixing. And he could be more sneaky than the smaller gave him credit for.
But he wouldn’t tell Yixing.
Because as much as he enjoyed Yixing being flustered, he enjoyed the fond, love-struck, content smile the smaller wore whenever he looked at Yifan after reading his Valentine’s card even more.)
~.~.~.~.~
A/N: I'm sorry, I'm starting to think I'm not so great at this writing thing. I've had this epilogue-thingy in my WIP folder for a while, because a few people were wondering about Yifan's reaction to Yixing's letter, and I felt as if I left quite some open ends, so this is my attempt at closure.