Work Text:
46 - Drive
Police academy entrance application, #327845300 Wu Yingxiong // Why you want to become a police officer: Knowing right and wrong is not enough, it has to be applied in every aspect of our lives.
36 - Stop
There's a 'Stop' sign nailed to a part of the pond walkway behind the Chen house, and everyone knows it's because one year the young mistress was so drunk she walked out and went straight into the water.
26 - Goodbye
Lei Musha can pinpoint the exact moment she realized Yingxiong wasn't going to stay with her - it was something in his eyes when he said 'home'.
34 - Sing
No one at the North District police department is particularly surprised when Chen Zaitian reveals himself as a Mariah Carey fan, though none of them hesitate to draw their weapons if he begins to sing.
40 - History
After it turns out 'mixup in coroner's office' was apparently code for 'clubs with lots of fake, lethal ecstasy', Lan Xiying becomes the first woman to write the new ME's Pathology Protocol.
39 - Torn
Whenever Chen Lin thinks about what would have happened if her father had married the girl of his dreams, she drives home and buys more lotuses for the back garden on the way there.
03 - Young
It's kind of funny how the wannabe-delinquent kids brought in by Patrol were invariably convinced of their own superiority to all the adults around them - Zaitian thinks back to his own sullen resignation that no one would ever take his side, and decides that he wouldn't have it any other way.
47 - Harm
Gao Yi laughs when people assume his immunity to Dream is due to overexposure, but then again, he supposes it would do more harm if they find out it's because he has no memories within which to lose himself.
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37 - Time
Yingxiong categorizes the day he met Chen Zaitian as alternately the best and worst in his life.
01 - Motion
The temperature in a moving body of water always feels colder than a stagnant one, but even with the blood loss, Xiying is pretty sure she can last until morning - she just hopes they can find her.
41 - Power
Lao Li knows he's the oldest detective officer on staff, and he doesn't care, most days - life's more fun without the paperwork.
21 - Fool
Hao Ke wants you to know: he's not actually scared of clowns, he's just not into seeing chalky white faces up close and personal.
27 - Hide
It's a terrible cliché, but Xiaolu reports to her superiors (the other ones) in a storage closet with one hand on the handle, voice hushed and hardly sounding like herself.
19 - Soul
On some days even the jailers are silent, because these are the days when Chen Nuo remembers he is missing half his soul, and that he'll never get it back.
48 - Precious
Being the most powerful man in Taiwan helps, of course, to collect an album full of old photos and school newsletters, but the best part is getting to add a new photo every day.
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33 - Never
It's possible Zaitian may never find out who his father is, but he's sure that he can't be happier, and he tells his mother so, once every year.
12 - Wait
One day, Lan Xiying will tell Chen Zaitian about the woman who attacked her in the ruins of the restaurant and the woman in the treasured photo he keeps in his wallet.
17 - Vision
It's been 42 days at sea, and Huang Shikai still can't stop seeing Chen Lin when he closes his eyes.
25 - Shadow
The gondola lurches under their feet as it begins its climb atop the city, bringing a new shade of ashen to Zaitian's cheeks; Chen Lin doesn't think it's only the possibility of a cable snapping, but for the moment she and Yingxiong step closer and hold him.
32 - Eye
She asks for the list of cosmetic changes made (and because her family is all about the breaches of privacy, she gets the papers the next day); it's not really surprising when she finds out that the surgeons hadn't done anything to his eyes - she can't imagine any imperfection in the way they flutter closed under her lips.
13 - Change
Lin Kele was born laughing to a mother who couldn't imagine anything more important than holding her daughter in her arms.
44 - Wall
When everything is over, Zaitian finally has the time to read over Director Lin's file, and has to keep from throwing up when it mentions that they found 'remains' of her DNA on a stretch of wall 4 meters long.
43 - God
Sarkozy's people aren't called Heaven's soldiers for nothing, and they will take down those three kids from Taiwan if their leader has to assign every single team to them.
22 - Mad
From the desk of Crime Unit Chief Chen, draft of letter to Chen Lin, dated 2009.08.07: You're like a baby hippo - adorable, dimply, and liable to charge trampling into a crowd when you think your territory has been invaded.
29 - Safe
Zaitian can almost taste the explosion of blood in the back of his throat when Xiaomei's blank eyes stare into his, and hopes as he counts that Yingxiong made it to Linlin in time - 3... 2... 1...
04 - Last
Her father's second-in-command waves the emptied magazine at her tauntingly, face contorted into a smirk even when she brings up her gun and aims (when the magazine is removed from a semi-automatic, one live bullet is left behind in the chamber)- "Oh, fuck it," Chen Lin mutters, and channels 15 years of firearms training down her bloody arms.
14 - Command
"Go," she says, not even caring that there are at least 15 people around, all with guns and hypersensitive (reasonable, given that it's her blood painted on these walls), "I can look after myself."
15 - Hold
"Aww, you shouldn't 'ave, bud, you know I love you b-" Yingxiong places a hand over Zaitian's mouth and tells himself that the average ambulance response time is 3 minutes in the city, which is not enough for a man to bleed out from 5 bullet wounds.
28 - Fortune
Yingxiong breaks the fortune cookie to see, in small, red print that looks slightly smudged, 'Your true love is right next to you' and laughs so hysterically the stall owner timidly volunteers to call paramedics; Chen Lin shakes her head subtly and doesn't take him back to the hospital until he starts crying.
11 - Blur
Looking at Linlin and Yingxiong's faces, he's still not sure what he did and said after Xiaomei's death, and some days, he's grateful he doesn't have to know.
42 - Bother
Zaitian wants to flail like Squidward, but his entire torso is pinned down by the superior forces of opiates, so he settles for lobbing a fruit basket at his grinning coworkers, and shouts after them, "There's no way I said, 'You're lucky I'm so good at being the princess-in-peril', you liars!"
49 - Hunger
Mysterious Crime Unit Tradition #34: Once every year, the Chief treats his entire team to dinner at McDonald's (bonus tradition: after dinner they have a playfight with the Happy Meal toys).
16 - Need
Papa Chen is glad his three children all know when to give strength without being asked, because goodness knows neither one can unbend enough to admit needing it.
20 - Picture
After they rebuild the South Precinct Station (3rd time's the charm, or so Zaitian hopes), some sneaky bastard commemorates the re-opening of the Crime Unit by taping this picture to the Chief's desk, with the inscription, in allcaps: MFEO.
10 - Learn
Zaitian looks at Yingxiong, his woeful expression suggesting a particularly heinous kind of betrayal as the other stuffs a pen in his hand and opens the first folder of many, many forms.
38 - Wash
It doesn't take Zaitian and Yingxiong very long to notice that if you want to irretrievably damage an item of clothing, you ask Chen Lin to take it to the laundry - everything comes back tiny and hat-shaped.
45 - Naked
There were no mirrors in his old penthouse, and there are none now, where he lives - the others understand.
02 - Cool
The skywriting says '~ We ♥ you forever Linlin!! ~', which is totally embarrassing but she is willing to content herself with dark thoughts of revenge once she finds out just how Zaitian managed to turn Yingxiong into such a dork (though something says maybe they were always dorks and she just never noticed).
31 - Book
Much to Zaitian's surprise, it's not Chen Lin who likes to keep a magazine and three books in the bathroom, but rather Yingxiong, who has apparently done this since he learned to read.
06 - Gentle
The puppy wriggles blissfully in his arms while Yingxiong tries to suppress an urge to cuddle - after all, they are in the middle of the police station's lobby.
05 - Wrong
Despite everything, or perhaps in spite of it, Du Wenyan thinks mistaking Chen Zaitian for Wu Yingxiong was the best miscalculation the boss's ever made.
18 - Attention
Chen Lin has yet to see a movie the whole way through, as they invariably get kicked out due to Zaitian's popcorn-throwing tendencies or Yingxiong losing his temper (at home, they get distracted by... other things).
30 - Ghost
"Linlin thinks you're only humouring me," Zaitian says, during another boring stakeout, "I personally promise you we're not part of an international conspiracy that wants your head on a silver platter, and in return you are going to be honest with us and stop thinking that she can't see you flinch."
23 - Child
Rule 2 of the Chen-Wu household: Mentioning baby pictures in any context is an act of war, and will result in Zaitian crying in a corner, all by himself, while Linlin punches Yingxiong.
08 - Thousand
"998," the entire office looks up as the Chief breezes through, folders flapping in his hand ominously, Yingxiong snorts, and corrects him in whatever arcane system they have going, "No, it's 1000."
09 - King
"You", Chen Lin points an accusatory chicken wing at him, "Are an uncultured lout who wouldn't know a checkmate if it bit you in the ass," Zaitian scoffs and takes a bite of the proffered wing, and sprays crumbs everywhere when she continues, "I could pin your king any day."
35 - Sudden
Every year Yingxiong offers to swap partners for someone sane, and every year some poor rookie falls for the trick (they usually find a reason to decline fearfully after 2 hours).
07 - One
Yingxiong readies himself to burst from behind the pillar when a deceptively gentle arm locks around his torso - "We hope you weren't thinking of being a hero again," Linlin murmurs in his ear.
24 - Now
"Because, you know, that's what you called 'exponentially stupid' the last time I did it, and we can't have you breaking your word, can you?" Chen Zaitian continues, and pats Yingxiong's shoulder with his free hand.
50 - Believe
Redacted police academy entrance application, #327845301 Chen Zaitian // Why you want to become a police officer: Because one should never fight the darkness alone.
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1- MFEO: Made For Each Other
2- Kele: is spelled exactly like the Chinese translation for Coke, but it can also mean 'joyful'.