#but he's the sweetest clingiest baby who will fall in love with xl at first sight

[holy--milk]

TGCF modern AU

I should be working on my master’s thesis right now, so in the typical me fashion I’m devoting my time and energy to making up silly TGCF fic scenarios instead fdshjdsjdshjds

Xie Lian meets a teenager at a bus stop at night who introduces himself as San Lang and tells him that he ran away from home after a fight with his family and now has nowhere to stay. Naturally, Xie Lian is like “No way you’re spending the night in the streets” and brings him to his cheap ass flat.

They live like that for a few days, with Xie Lian spending most of the day at work while San Lang takes care of his run-down flat for him by doing repairs (he turns out to be quite handy) and cleaning because he wants to do something nice for this nice weirdo that took him in. In the evenings, they have dinner and chill together, with Xie Lian coming to appreciate the teenager’s company more and more.

It goes on like that for a while until one day, when they go grocery shopping together, San Lang gets cornered by a shady-looking man with an eyepatch who starts going on at him for “throwing a tantrum like a fucking child and running away”. Seeing this, Xie Lian immediately intercedes and tells the man to leave the kid alone or else—

The shady man just kinda stands there dumbfounded, looking at this unassuming guy half a head shorter than him, acting as if he’s both willing to and capable of whooping his ass right there in the cereal aisle at a supermarket. Then he leaves without saying anything.

On the way home San Lang is being uncharacteristically quiet, and once they arrive back at Xie Lian’s flat he admits that that was his elder brother – Hua Cheng – who’s been taking care of him in place of their parents. He also tells Xie Lian that the reason he ran away from home in the first place was them having a fight over San Lang’s “laziness” and lack of ambition.

It turns out that their parents were neglectful and abusive, so at the age of 16 Hua Cheng emancipated and moved out with his two younger brothers (the other one being E’ming) in tow, eventually getting custody over them. It was pretty hard for the three of them in the beginning, but in a few years Hua Cheng somehow managed to land a good job that allowed them to live comfortably (San Lang never asked what exactly he was doing because he lowkey suspected it was some shady business).

Despite his background, over the years San Lang came to rely on his brother’s steady income and enjoy a “rich kid” lifestyle, not giving much thought to his education and future career. Eventually Hua Cheng, who had had to work hard to provide this kind of life for him, blew up and accused him of being a selfish lazy asshole, so San Lang got mad at him and ran away.

In the end, San Land admits that was childish of him and, while Hua Cheng can be an overbearing asshole sometimes, ultimately he’s always been a good brother to him, so it was shitty of him to run away and make him worry. He texts Hua Cheng to pick him up and goes back home with him.

Xie Lian feels that he’s going to miss San Lang, whose company he’s come to enjoy over the past few days but agrees that that would be for the best.

However, when Xie Lian comes home the next day, he sees the familiar man with an eyepatch waiting near his apartment building. Hua Cheng approaches him and apologises for causing a scene the previous day, then offers to pay for the inconvenience of having to host his brother. Xie Lian refuses the money, saying it was no trouble at all, but invites Hua Cheng in.

Hua Cheng accept the invitation and the two of them have a little chat over tea. Hua Cheng complains about San Lang acting more and more rebellious lately and slacking off at school, making his grades suffer. He says he wants San Lang to get into a good college for better chances of getting a well-paying job afterwards because it’s not like he’ll be there forever to provide for him.

In a sudden bout of inspiration, Xie Lian offers to tutor San Lang on the subjects he struggles with at school. He may not be a teacher but he was a top student in both school and college, and since he and San Lang already have a good relationship, he believes he’ll have easier time getting him to listen and put in effort.

(The real reason is, he wants to keep spending time with San Lang, who he thinks is a smart and capable kid.)

(He also may or may not be intrigued by this Hua Cheng.)

Hua Cheng, although doubtful at first, ends up accepting his offer.

I still need to figure out where it would go from there, but in the end Xie Lian and Hua Cheng end up spending time together and falling in love in the typical Hualian fashion (obviously Hua Cheng ends up being a massive simp). San Lang and E’ming are torn between pushing the two of them together (because they want Xie Lian-gege to be part of their weird little family!!!) and fighting with Hua Cheng for Xie Lian’s attention and affection.