Work Text:
Habit, Shen Yi decided, was a scary thing. Having lived for almost thirty years basically alone, he knew how to take care of himself. The proof was that he was still alive now, despite what a certain captain of his team said about his self-care abilities or lack thereof.
Shen Yi knew how to live. Granted, he knew almost nothing about cooking, apart from boiling water for instant noodles and frying eggs. He made a mean sunny-side up. But know them, he did. He knew to douse light burn with running cold water, knew how to separate his trash, knew to pay the bills on time without prompting, among others.
Still, Du Cheng would always find a reason to nag him about his lifestyle. Either the clothes Shen Yi wore weren't suitable for the season, or he ate too little, or that he drank too much coffee so late into the day, et cetera. The captain sounded so much like a mother he never had. Or at least what Shen Yi thought a mother would sound like. His never did those things.
His early days at Beijiang Public Security Bureau weren’t easy. Being targeted by Du Cheng, Shen Yi had to work while being basically isolated, and that was lonely. Lonely, Shen Yi could handle. What he almost couldn’t was to suppress that desire to prove himself when he knew damn well he had nothing to prove. He knew his capabilities, and Chief Zhang also did. That should be enough. All Shen Yi had to do was draw some portraits, help the team solve the case, solve Captain Lei’s case, and continue with his life, guilt and all.
Shen Yi had to admit to himself that he liked his job. Loved it, even. But dealing with Du Cheng at the beginning was confusing, to say the least. Du Cheng would criticize everything Shen Yi did, even his breathing was wrong in that man’s eyes, yet he would wait until Shen Yi was safe inside his house before leaving in his Wrangler. And this was during the period when his hatred towards Shen Yi was at its highest.
Shen Yi noticed that this, of course. After all, it was hard not to when the street was so quiet at night and the Wrangler’s engine wasn’t that soft. After two weeks of this, Shen Yi accepted that while Du Cheng hated him, he was just not a guy who would leave people in danger, potential or otherwise.
Shen Yi didn’t notice the street lamp was fixed three months after the fact, though.
Traveling in Du Cheng’s Wrangler to crime scenes and to meet suspects or witnesses was also hard at first. Du Cheng would intentionally step on the brake hard, just because Shen Yi was asleep and Du Cheng didn’t think gently shaking him awake was a viable option. Sleeping was already a hard thing for Shen Yi to do at night, alone in his house. Whatever sleep he could get was by being inside a car.
Which was why it was ruined by his encounter with Cao Dong. Shen Yi’s luck was that bad, curse it all.
After his brush with death by drowning, Shen Yi was almost afraid of getting inside a car. He opted for his bicycle to commute everywhere, which was a norm for him before Du Cheng. While the man despised Shen Yi just by existing, his caring nature triumphed over his hatred, hence him driving Shen Yi to and from work. When Shen Yi said he would ride his bicycle to work, Du Cheng’s expression turned puzzled.
“Why?” Du Cheng had asked.
Why, indeed… would be Shen Yi’s response because it was so obvious, to him, anyway. But being vulnerable in front of someone who despised you would only lead to harm, so Shen Yi replied with, “I need to get some exercise. You guys always say I’m too thin, so I’m thinking of building some muscles.”
Du Cheng’s expression took on some interesting colour before he coughed and said, “Okay. As long as you don’t turn up late to work.”
That should be the end of the matter. Still, Shen Yi being Shen Yi, trouble followed him everywhere. His bicycle was stolen. Right at his doorstep. Being a police officer should deter this kind of thing from happening, but Shen Yi had resigned to his fate by this point in his life. To make matters worse, his stomach chose that day to illustrate just how hollow Shen Yi’s body was.
Shen Yi had woken up late that morning. Having only around 3 hours of sleep, he was operating on more caffeine and headache, and in his rush to work, he bumped his shin on the coffee table, twice. XuanXuan wasn’t helping much, either, despite being Shen Yi’s sole pillar of emotional support. She kept meowing for attention and food, which Shen Yi could only provide for the latter at that moment.
Finding out that his bicycle was missing was just another cherry on top of his already sour morning. Shen Yi knew that if he didn’t move now, he would be very late for work, and that wouldn’t do. So he rushed to the street while tapping on his phone for e-hailing service. Fate clearly hated him that day, Shen Yi tripped on his shoelace, which he only realized he didn’t tie when he was already on the ground, palms scraped and knees bleeding.
Arriving at the bureau looking like he had just escaped a fight with three hooligans armed with a spoon, the whole office started to ask him what happened, which worsened his headache and soured his mood even further. Shen Yi answered them as quickly and gently as he could while trying to make his way to his office when Du Cheng suddenly appeared beside him and pushed Shen Yi into his office.
“What the hell happened?!”
And Shen Yi decided to just tell the man in minute detail what had happened since the moment he woke up that morning, along with his opinion on his fate, grumbling about what colours he thought today would be to himself. The lack of sleep was biting him in the ass since Shen Yi would never do that unless he was drunk or with the people he was close with. His senior Lin Min wasn’t there, and Shen Yi had only drunk coffee that morning, so he clearly was losing his mind.
Apparently, this was enough to make Du Cheng decide that Shen Yi couldn’t take care of himself. From that day on, he insisted on driving Shen Yi to and from work, even after Shen Yi bought a new bicycle that was perfectly functional. Still, Shen Yi thought nothing of it since he often rode his bike when Du Cheng wasn’t available, which was a common occurrence, given how busy the captain was.
It was another thing that Shen Yi was puzzled about. Whenever his stomach was acting up, Du Cheng seemed to have noticed it and was oddly prepared for it. When it first happened, Du Cheng asked Shen Yi if he had gastritis, to which Shen Yi replied, “Yes, but not that serious. I just need to eat something.” Du Cheng’s response to that was to stop the Wrangler at the side of the street before going out and returning with two steamed pork buns and a warm cup of tea from a convenience store.
“Take this first and eat these after,” said Du Cheng while handing him the plastic bag and a pill that looked like a ganaton tablet, which Shen Yi frequently took. Now, Shen Yi was a vigilant man, being a police officer, and especially after that incident with that damned woman, he was always wary of people offering him something. However, people didn’t include Du Cheng. So, Shen Yi took the offered pill and intended to swallow it dry, but Du Cheng had already had the warm tea ready, handing it to him like it was nothing.
It was nothing, Shen Yi guessed. It was nothing at all. It wasn’t like Du Cheng had any meaning in taking care of him like this. Du Cheng was just a worry-wart and a mother hen. Shen Yi was sure he had done the same to their other colleagues a plethora of times already. Shen Yi was just another one of the long list of people he took care of now.
Another time, Shen Yi was having another headache. He had just helped Jinxiang branch with a case that took him longer than it should, but with the image taken from a surveillance camera that looked like it was made in the 50s, Shen Yi was grateful that it only took him three days of almost no sleep to draw a portrait of the criminal. If the pictures were any grainier than those, he’d rather dig out his eyeballs and lend them to someone with a more functional brain.
Being picked up by Du Cheng already surprised Shen Yi. Beijiang branch and Jinxiang might be close, but they were not so close that Du Cheng could say it was on his way. It was out of his way, actually, so Shen Yi wondered why he was there. “I was interviewing some witnesses and thought I could drop by and see how you’re doing. Well, I see that I have good timing, so I’ll take you home,” was Du Cheng’s response when Shen Yi asked.
Shen Yi didn’t know how Du Cheng could tell he was having a headache. He was pretty confident in his ability to mask his pain, being kind of an orphan with no one caring for him except for his teacher and his wife would engrave this habit into you, regardless of who you were. But notice it Du Cheng did. Before Shen Yi could doze off, Du Cheng handed him a cream bread and warm tea, before handing him a paracetamol after he polished off the bread. “Sleep,” Du Cheng said.
Shen Yi did fall asleep and wasn’t that a surprise. He didn’t know when it started, but the only car Shen Yi could now sleep in was Du Cheng’s. He also didn’t know when waking up with a blanket wrapping around him started becoming a common occurrence. After the blanket, a neck pillow started to emerge on his seat before Shen Yi could even think of dozing off. Yes, Shen Yi had started to dub Du Cheng’s front passenger’s seat as his. Don’t ask him when this started. Shen Yi didn’t know.
Shen Yi spent seven years molding his personality into a more amiable one. He was not a bad person before, but a bit arrogant. Lin Min said he was a gremlin, but that was a story for another day. Shen Yi figured trying to teach and work in the force required one to have a mild personality, at least outwardly. Especially so since he’d be working with Du Cheng, if he played his card right. That impression was shattered when he worked on his first task, helping a branch with a portrait of a robber. Most people in the police force were a bit hotheaded, Shen Yi found then.
Shen Yi could accept that his guess missed, but he had already spent 5 years changing his personality at that point. He wasn’t going to stop now. Shen Yi took it as a practice for dealing with Du Cheng. From what he remembered, the man was passionate. And passionate almost always translated into hotheadedness, in Shen Yi’s experience. His bet paid off, mostly. Du Cheng was still always pissed off when dealing with him at the beginning, but as Shen Yi had guessed, most of the people in the bureau warmed up to him not long after, despite Du Cheng’s obvious hatred toward him. Still, the man was too compassionate to keep hating him.
He knew how he looked. Shen Yi had always looked a bit delicate, almost fragile. Playing this so that it could be to his advantage, Shen Yi picked his wardrobe accordingly. He had always been fond of baggy clothing, so it wasn’t a jarring experience for him. Always soothing colours, a bit nerdy, but also almost trendy that he wouldn’t be the focus of anyone’s attention wherever he went. Shen Yi couldn’t say that he liked that people thought he was weak, but physically, he was. So he thought, why not just dress up exactly how people think he appeared? Well, almost everyone was fooled. But not Du Cheng. Never him.
However, Shen Yi figured Du Cheng would just be the kind of guy who would keep hand cream on him for someone else’s use. The first time he handed a tiny jar of hand cream to Shen Yi, it was during a winter night. They had just finished examining a crime scene, and the dry, cold wind felt like blades slashing against their skin.
“Here, Qing-jie said it’s good. I dunno much, so I just bought it. Try it,” said Du Cheng after rummaging through the storage compartment of his Wrangler. Shen Yi just stared at the proffered jar, confused.
“And what exactly is this?” Shen Yi had asked.
Du Cheng just answered in that infuriatingly casual way of his, as if what he did was no big deal. “It’s a hand cream. I checked the brand, it got good reviews. It’ll be good for your hands, Mr. Artist.”
Shen Yi didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just took the jar and scooped the cream inside. It had a nice mild floral scent and applied nicely without a sticky sensation. Shen Yi would’ve felt insulted if it were anyone else doing this, insinuating that he had delicate hands, but this was Du Cheng. Hands feeling softer, Shen Yi was in a better mood, especially after Du Cheng took him for supper at a good Cantonese restaurant.
That was another thing that puzzled Shen Yi. Du Cheng always had food ready for him at any time of the day. Either he already had them in his car, or he’d take Shen Yi to restaurants. The first time it happened, they didn’t even go to work together. Du Cheng just barged into his office and placed a takeout bowl of porridge with omelette and some preserved greens as side dishes. Don’t ask Shen Yi what vegetables those were. He liked vegetables, but he couldn’t be arsed to know their names. He didn’t need to know their names to know that they were veggies.
Du Cheng took his tumbler and screwed it open before peering inside. “You have tea ready, so I won’t bother fetching you some water.”
Shen Yi just stared at him incredulously. He didn’t understand what Du Cheng was doing, and why was he doing it. “What’s this?” Shen Yi asked.
“Breakfast, what else?” With that, the infuriatingly tall man left his office.
And this kept happening that Shen Yi no longer felt it was weird. Because everyone in the office treated it as if it was normal. So much so that Shen Yi would feel off whenever Du Cheng was on a business trip and therefore unable to provide him with food. Funny thing was, the other member of his team took over his job as Shen Yi’s food supplier. It was a bit of a hit or miss the first few times, as they didn’t know Shen Yi wasn’t fond of meat. But after a few trials, they did the job perfectly.
Shen Yi didn’t know how to feel about that. He was thankful and happy, but it was also kind of vexing, as it felt like they were treating him like a kid who couldn’t feed himself.
Once, it rained heavily when they were interviewing a witness. Du Cheng’s Wrangler was parked quite far away from their witness’ place, so they had to brave the rain. Drenched and in a bad mood since he didn’t get to store his sketchbook inside his bag in time, Shen Yi was grumbling inwardly when a fluffy tower suddenly fell on his head.
Without a word, Du Cheng rubbed Shen Yi’s hair with the towel, drying it. He didn’t even take time to dry his own hair, yet he was fussing with Shen Yi’s. Shen Yi noticed that Du Cheng had already turned the heater on before he even found the towel.
“Du Cheng, what are you doing?”
The hands drying Shen Yi’s hair didn’t even pause as Du Cheng replied, “Drying your hair, of course. What else?”
“Dry your own hair before fussing about mine. We don’t want our captain to catch a cold now, do we?” Shen Yi was growing a bit frustrated by everything by this point. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to talk harshly to the taller man, so he resorted to teasing.
“Well, this captain has a strong body hence a strong immune system. You’re the one who caught a cold from the slightest breeze, so I’m prioritizing.”
“Breeze? That was a gale. And we were at the beach. And it was during autumn. It wasn’t-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s the weather's fault for being bad. Our Shen Yi don’t have a weak body. Change your clothes, won’t you?” Du Cheng said while handing him a bag.
Taking the bag gingerly, Shen Yi opened it and found that there were some white t-shirts and a cardigan inside.
“Your clothes are too big, Du Cheng. I’ll change when we get back to the office,” said Shen Yi while zipping the bag closed and handing it back to Du Cheng.
“They’re your size. I asked Qing-jie the other day, so it will fit you, don’t worry. Now change. We don’t want you to catch a cold. I’ll go to the convenience store there and get us some hot coffee. It looks like we’re gonna have to pull extra hours today.”
Was it weird that his colleague knew his size? Shen Yi decided that nothing was weird by this point, already used to Du Cheng’s mother-hen-ness. If he were to dig deeper, Shen Yi wasn’t sure whether he’d be afraid or disappointed by what he’d find.
Then, things just escalated.
Du Cheng bought a new car. An electric one. A very cozy one, at that, and so un-Du Cheng car.
Shen Yi didn’t ask. It wasn’t his business to know why his work partner suddenly drove a car that was so unlike him to work. That car didn’t suit Du Cheng and the man looked out of place driving it. It was wrong, but it was Du Cheng’s car, so Shen Yi didn’t ask. Still, the car didn’t suit Du Cheng at all.
It wasn’t until a case that brought them to a group of street kids taking of a blind child that Shen Yi finally asked, “Why this car, Du Cheng?”
“Hmm? You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s just… It’s so unlike you.”
Du Cheng hummed at that before saying, “You mean it doesn’t suit me.”
“No- Well, yes, kind of. But it’s your car, so you can buy whatever kind of car you want. Sorry for being such a busybody about it.”
“Now that is unlike you, Shen Yi. You never shy away from teasing me before. What gives?”
Shen Yi pouted. He actually pouted, like a seven-year-old child, not getting a candy he felt he deserved. “I’m just asking. You don’t need to answer me if you don’t want to.”
Du Cheng chuckled at that and said, “Look at you. I can hang a barrel of oil from your mouth, pouting like that.” He flicked the indicator, before turning the car and added, “I bought it for convenience. This car is handy. I still have my Wrangler. I love that car, but when I go to work, I’ll drive this one. That’s good enough for you?”
Shen Yi just hummed in reply, not knowing what to say to that. Du Cheng might as well just say he changed his car for Shen Yi. Nowadays, almost no one would take Du Cheng's car except for Shen Yi. Even Jiang Feng rode his motorbike now. So who else was the convenience that of car was for? It went without saying for whom.
Not knowing what to say, Shen Yi changed the subject. “I noticed you never interact much with kids. I never thought you’d be the ‘shy around kids’ kind of a guy,” he teased.
“Well, I don’t have problems with kids. But I learned early on that I’m too big for some kids to be comfortable around me. Case in point, He Hong’s child. And you also know that I can be too forceful without noticing it, so I don’t think being around kids is a good idea,” explained Du Cheng while glancing at Shen Yi’s arm.
Shen Yi suddenly felt a wave of fondness surged in his heart for this adorable 191 cm tall man. When he dragged Shen Yi away, ages ago during Shen Yi's early days in the bureau, he had left marks on Shen Yi’s arm. Shen Yi didn’t say a word about it, but Du Cheng noticed he favored his other arm more. After some goading from Li Han, who, in a burst of energy she never showed, pulled his sleeves up, Shen Yi had to admit that he bruised easily.
He also felt pain more easily, but Shen Yi wasn’t going to admit that. The gasp of shock from Li Han was enough to make him regretful. He didn’t need anyone to treat him any more differently than they already did at that time, from Du Cheng’s dissatisfaction with him. This would surely add to it.
Surprisingly, Li Han came to his office later with an ointment. And Old Yan also dropped by to give him a cup of tea, saying it’s good for soothing nerves. Even Jiang Feng stopped by to give him tips on strengthening muscles as if Shen Yi needed any more exercise than riding his bicycle every day everywhere.
It was some time later that Shen Yi noticed that Du Cheng never grabbed him by the arm anymore. At most, he’d just steer Shen Yi with hands on his shoulders or with a nudge to a certain direction. It had been two years since then. While Shen Yi was glad Du Cheng remembered a lot about him, he wasn’t really happy that Du Cheng had to restrain himself just because he was afraid he’d hurt someone.
“You know you don’t have to be afraid with me, right? I only bruises easily. It only looked bad, but it didn’t hurt at all,” tried Shen Yi. He needed Du Cheng to understand that he didn’t mind Du Cheng’s strength. His strength meant safety to Shen Yi. Du Cheng's existence itself meant strength for Shen Yi. Otherwise, he wouldn't have recorded the man's voice calling for him and had it set as an alarm ring. Du Cheng's voice alone was enough to ward off nightmares.
“I know, but I also know that I don’t want you to get hurt anymore. The best thing I can do about that is to at least make sure the hurt won’t come from me. I already did enough of that,” was Du Cheng’s reply.
They spent the rest of the drive to Shen Yi’s home in silence.
While thinking about a case, Shen Yi had an epiphany and immediately, he called for Du Cheng, who instantly appeared in his office as if he had been waiting for it.
Shen Yi didn’t think much of it at that time, pressed for time as he was, but it came up to him later when he was alone in his house. Du Cheng always popped up whenever Shen Yi called for him. Shen Yi knew that they had a tacit understanding with each other. A lot of people had commented on this, especially Captain Lu, who never failed to bring this up whenever they crossed paths with each other.
But to appear as soon as Shen Yi called his name?
Either Du Cheng had a telepathy with him or he was a supernatural creature. Shen Yi crossed the latter, there wasn’t anything supernatural about Du Cheng. So telepathy? Not that, either. The world hadn’t evolved to the point of people being able to communicate via mind.
And why was Shen Yi always called for Du Cheng? He could’ve called for anyone else, like Rong Yue for example. Rong Yue was smart, sharp, and had a wicked sense of humor. Or Li Han, who was quick to action whenever something came up. Jiang Feng, even, who’d do whatever Shen Yi asked despite all his grumblings.
Yet Shen Yi never once called for them. His first choice would always be Du Cheng.
Shen Yi went to his studio, thinking that it’d calm him down. Now, Shen Yi thought he shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore, but what he suddenly noticed inside his studio stupefied him.
His studio was full of paintings of Du Cheng. His paintings of Du Cheng. And they were all in red, Shen Yi’s favourite colour.
“Oh…” muttered Shen Yi, suddenly understanding everything.
The nagging, the street lamp fixing, the ride to and from work, the feeding, the medicines, the blanket, the neck pillow, the hand cream, those change of clothes inside Du Cheng’s car, the change of his car, his handling Shen Yi in almost delicate manner, his appearing whenever Shen Yi called…
Du Cheng was in love with him.
Without thinking, Shen Yi scrambled for his phone and dialed Du Cheng’s number, which Shen Yi had conveniently saved as “A-Du Cheng.”
Shen Yi wasn’t in a habit of denial. He knew how he felt about Du Cheng, but never in his dreams would he think Du Cheng would reciprocate. Yet all those things indicated that Du Cheng felt the same about him. He was just waiting for Shen Yi to figure it out.
Shen Yi decided to bet.
The call was answered, and Shen Yi was tongue-tied.
“Du Cheng…”
“Shen Yi? What’s wrong? What happened? Where are you?”
Shen Yi felt like crying. His eyes already wet, figured.
“Du Cheng, you… All those things, were you waiting for me to figure it out?”
It was silent on the other end of the line. Shen Yi could feel his blood run cold. Was he mistaken?
Then, he heard the rustles of fabric and something being dropped before a muffled voice rang out, cursing.
“Took you long enough,” confirmed Du Cheng, sounding out of breath. “Wait at your house. I’m coming.”