Work Text:
Xie Lian shut the door to his apartment behind him, sighing as he placed his backpack next to the door. He heard a little tap from his bedroom and he smiled, walking over there. He entered his room to see Rouye tapping against the glass of his enclosure.
“Hi, Rouye! I’m not used to not seeing you during the day!” Xie Lian said, stepping over and taking Rouye out. The snake flicked his tongue at him curiously.
“I did spend the day with San Lang again.” Xie Lian said, moving to sit on his pokey bed with Rouye still in his hand. “Speaking of San Lang…”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and smiled when he saw a text from the other.
San Lang
7:32 P.M
gege have you gotten home yet
He quickly typed out a response.
Xie Lian
7:32 P.M
I just got back ^^
San Lang
7:33 P.M
good
i don’t want gege getting caught outside when it’s late
Xie Lian
7:33 P.M
Oh, San Lang doesn’t have to be worried! I’d be fine even if I was! Besides, it’s not that late.
San Lang
7:33 P.M
you never know
some people are idiots
Xie Lian
7:34 P.M
San Lang has a point.
Xie Lian sighed. He really would be fine! There's not much that could realistically harm him, least of all in the center of busy Los Angeles.
Xie Lian looked at Rouye and shook his head. “Rouye, San Lang is worrying about me. How do I tell him that he doesn't need to?”
The snake didn't respond.
Obviously, said Snape in his brain. He snickered. He loves it when his brain fishes up random quotes from movies he watched as a kid. Harry Potter was one of his favorites.
He looked down as his phone rang, looking at the caller ID. It showed a profile picture of a secret photo that Xie Lian had caught of San Lang when he was focused on something, tip of his tongue sticking out.
He answered the phone and put it on speaker so he could actually hear. Even on speaker, he still can't hear it the best. Oh well, that's what having a trashy phone is like.
“Gege!” Hua Cheng exclaimed.
“Hi, San Lang.” Xie Lian greeted.
“How was the train?”
“It was kinda ‘eh’. Just a normal train ride, with people listening to music or doing something on their phones.”
Hua Cheng did a little ‘oh’. “Did gege do anything interesting?”
Xie Lian thought about it for a moment. “Oh! I read up on some leaks for future updates!”
“For Genshin?”
“Mhmm! It seemed really interesting. Apparently Windtrace might come back.”
“Oh? Windtrace is always fun.” Hua Cheng said. “Only with gege, of course.”
Xie Lian laughed. “Don't be silly, San Lang. You've never played Windtrace with me before. How do you know it would be fun?”
“Anything with gege is fun.” Hua Cheng stated adamantly. “Gege makes everything better.”
He shrugged, before remembering that Hua Cheng couldn't see him. “If San Lang says so, it must be true.”
“Should we do a little practice?”
“How would that work?” Xie Lian asked.
“We pick a random spot on the map, and one of us hides while the other seeks. You're not allowed to look at your map.” Hua Cheng explained. “This way I can prove that Windtrace with gege is fun.”
Xie Lian giggled. “Let's go then. Who wants to be the hunter?”
“I can,” Hua Cheng offered. “I'll chase gege around the map like how Hu Tao chases Qiqi, except I'll catch you.”
Xie Lian choked. “San Lang!!”
Hua Cheng laughed.
Xie Lian loaded Genshin on his phone as he tried to come up with another joke. “San Lang will chase after me like how Ganyu chases sleep?”
“Yes, exactly like that gege. But even better. I'd become a Ganyu main and chase after gege if he were sleep.”
More giggles escaped Xie Lian as the door loaded, and the 7 elements appeared on his screen after he tapped it.
“Should I join you, or should you join me?” Xie Lian asked.
“I'll join gege.” Hua Cheng offered. “Get ready to be chased down. I'll snatch you as fast as the shogun would snatch visions.”
“San Lang! Where do you get these? Do you pull them out of a magic hat?” Xie Lian asked.
“Gege thinks I'm like Lyney? I can turn up the flirting if he wants.”
“San Lang!!” He exclaimed, face burning red. “That's not necessary!”
Hua Cheng laughed. “Gege will have to let me in so I can focus on finding him then; otherwise I might get distracted and pull something else out of my magic hat.”
Xie Lian looked at the top of his screen, clicking the accept button, and watching as Hua Cheng loaded in using Kaeya.
The character moved in little circles around him, and Xie Lian laughed. “Hi, San Lang.”
“How is gege doing this fine day?” Hua Cheng asked, giving the impression that he was doing a playful bow.
“Just fine, thank you. How has yours been?” Xie Lian asked back, equally playful.
“Good now that I’m with gege.”
“Weren’t we going to do something?” Xie Lian quickly asked, trying to ignore the way his ears were burning.
“We were going to play our own version of Windtrace.” the other man said, voice slightly patchy through the speaker.
“I’ll look for a location then!” Xie Lian volunteered.
“Wherever gege chooses will surely be the best, a reflection of him.”
“San Lang, stop with that flattery.” Xie Lian teased. “I might start to think that you’re flirting.”
The line stayed quiet for a second too long to be considered normal. “And what would gege do if I was?”
Xie Lian sputtered non-intelligibly.
Hua Cheng laughed. “Don’t worry gege, I’ll let you do your location hunting in peace. Do you have any candidates so far?”
“Hmm. I think I do. Here, follow me.” He teleported to the waypoint by Nantianmen in Liyue, waiting for Hua Cheng to follow. He saw him load in, and decided to burn the grass underneath him while his screen loaded. Xie Lian held back his giggles until he heard Hua Cheng react.
“What was that? Gege, what did I ever do to deserve this?”
“Hmm. All the flattery.”
Hua Cheng scoffed in sarcastic offense. “Oh gege, how you wound me. I’ll have to make sure to be extra thorough while hunting.”
“Right!” Xie Lian exclaimed. “Close your eyes San Lang. I’m gonna go hide.”
“Anything for gege.”
Xie Lian quickly glanced at Hua Cheng’s character, and then made a run for the weird stone tower thing in the middle of the pond across from the hilichurl tent. He hid behind one of the supporting pillars, and hoped that Hua Cheng wouldn’t find him.
“Okay, San Lang. You can look now.”
“Alright.” The man said, his character moving on the small part of the map he could see.
Xie Lian held back his giggles as he thoroughly checked the hilichurl tower.
“Where could gege be? I don’t see him in the tower.” His words stopped a little bit before he exclaimed “Gege, why did you lure me over here? Now all the hilichurls are trying to attack me!”
“Sorry, San Lang. But technically I haven’t done any luring at all.” Xie Lian responded. “You’ll just have to show me how strong you are. Kaeya solo, go!”
Xie Lian was certain that Hua Cheng had a smirk on his face. “I can show gege how strong I am.”
Xie Lian saw the damage through the pillar he was hiding behind, and he gawked. “San Lang, how can you do that much?! I can barely even do 25k, but you’re doing 75!”
“I’ve spent too much time playing this game.” Was Hua Cheng’s answer. “Wayyyyy too much.”
“How many hours have you played?” Xie Lian asked.
“Uh, I don’t actually know.” Hua Cheng said sheepishly. “I just know that it’s a lot. You don’t get to the max AR if you don’t spend lots of time playing.”
“You’re the max AR?!” Xie Lian exclaimed. “I didn’t know that!”
“Yup. I’m at AR 60.” The man said. Xie Lian watched as the numbers ceased and turned his attention to the map where he could see ‘2P’ running around.
“I could never.” Xie Lian said.
“I think gege could. He just needs to have a little patience.”
“San Lang.” Xie Lian deadpanned. “I’ve been playing for 4 years now.”
“Oh. Maybe gege just needs a bit more patience…?”
Xie Lian stayed silent for a second or too, before laughing. “I’m kidding, I’ve only been playing for about 1.”
Hua Cheng sighed in relief. “Gege had me scared for a second. I thought I had done something to offend him.”
Xie Lian jumped and threw his phone across the room with a yelp when he saw Kaeya suddenly appear on his screen, yelling ‘freeze!’
“San Lang, you scared me!” He exclaimed, walking across the room to pick up his phone, worriedly examining it for any damage.
“My apologies gege. You’ll have a turn to scare me when you find me.” Hua Cheng offered as recompense.
Xie Lian, satisfied with his examination, went to sit back down on his bed. “San Lang better hide fast then. I’m gonna get him.”
Xie Lian looked at Rouye slithering around the bed as he waited for Hua Cheng to hide. The snake was just about to slither under his pillow when Hua Cheng spoke. “Gege, I’ve hidden.”
“Game on.” He said, looking at his phone and immediately ran to check the trees. He couldn’t remember which version it was, but he knows that hiding in the trees is always a good spot; you just have to be careful of falling out.
“San Lang, are you hiding in these trees?”
“I’m not supposed to tell you that.” Hua Cheng said.
Xie Lian sighed. “Oh well, it was worth a shot.”
He checked each tree carefully, before checking the Hilichurl tower. He looked through it methodically, going from bottom to top. By the stairs leading up to the inside, there were a few boxes, one with an apple on top.
He went to the boxes, meaning to only catch the apple but he was caught by surprise instead when he saw that Hua Cheng was hiding behind that box!
“Aha! I found you, San Lang!”
“So you did. Want to play a few more rounds?”
Xie Lian quickly said yes. They played a few more rounds, each one being a bit more fun than the last. No matter how hard he tried, he was never able to jumpscare Hua Cheng.
“Gege, we’ll have to do this again sometime soon.”
Xie Lian hummed. “We will. This was fun. Unfortunately I do have to go now. Apparently there’s this thing called ‘eating’?”
Hua Cheng laughed. “I’ll let gege eat his dinner then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye San Lang!” Xie Lian said, then the call ended.
He went to go make some food, and managed not to burn down his apartment while he was at it. He gave Rouye a rat, and sat down at his tiny table to eat.
He can’t wait to see San Lang again.