#i love tumblr's formatting

[falling-star-cygnus]

Marie Antoinette Syndrome -> OR, the hair in Link Click continues to confuzzle me

I wrote one for Xia Fei, it's only fair to write one for the other mystery of hair follicles that happens to be Lu Guang

tug.

…tug.

tug-

“What are you doing?” Lu Guang finally asks, finally bats away his roommate’s fingers from his tender scalp.

Cheng Xiaoshi’s fingers were gentle, they always were with him [like he was something precious], but it was still annoying. The constant rustle and tug of pure white hair had been going on for nearly ten minutes now.. 

“Huh? Did it hurt?” the dark haired boy asks, ever so conscientious. Not.

“That’s not what I asked you.”

“But did it?”

“...no.”

It honestly didn’t, though maybe Lu Guang had a skewed sense of the word. His scalp.. stung, slightly in that tugged spot, but it didn’t hurt. Barely a bite at what used to withstand- 

-what wasn’t important anymore.

He shouldn’t dwell on something he wasn’t going to return to.  [something he couldn't return to, a person who had changed too drastically to be fixed by different choices]

tug

A vein ticks in his forehead.

"Xiaoshi-"

"You said it didn't hurt!" comes his feeble defense.

It's not feebly stated, but it's weak regardless- the dark haired boy is quickly cowed by his roommates glowering side-eye.

"Your hair is like- white."

...Lu Guang draws in a deep breath through his nose. Closes his novel.

"I hadn't noticed."

Cheng Xiaoshi sputters, and then throws himself into a stand from where he had been leaning over the back of their couch. Even years into living with the boy, the thought of something being theirs sparks a warm glow alight in his chest.

"No it's-" his roommate trips to explain, gesticulating wildly, "unnatural?"

The pale haired boy raises a grey brow, and offers naught but a slow blink.

"Not- not in a bad way!" Cheng Xiaoshi hurriedly tacks on, "You know I think you're handsome!"

"Both of us travel and see through time," Lu Guang states, staunchly ignoring the heat in his ears, "but white hair is where you draw the line?"

"I didn't mean it like that!"

This light argument between the two, if it could even really be called that, usually stirred something free in his lungs- usually made his breaths come a little smoother. Having someone that didn't care if he was perfect, that didn't care if he was- well, antisocial was the word most often used- was...

..it was nice.

Usually.

Now his chest tightened like a knot in red yarn, his throat coated in the dirt of memories he'd thought he'd buried. His hands shaking.

Different hands- warm, calloused hands that are rough from so many years of basketball- cup his cheeks. A thumb brushes over his eyelashes, terrifyingly gentle, and for a heart stopping moment Lu Guang fears it'll pull away wet.

It doesn't, and he's pulled into the present.

"Your hair is way too soft to be dyed!" Cheng Xiaoshi exclaims, like it was fact, "But your eyelashes are dark. So are your eyebrows."

His thumb trails over one of those next, and Lu Guang is too confused to be panicked anymore.

"What's up with that?"

"It's not dyed." evade, evade, evade.

"Well, duh. I would've seen your roots by now." the photographer states plainly, before raising a hand to his chin, "Unless it's your eyebrows that are dyed..."

"By now-? How long have you been thinking about this?"

Change the subject.

"A co- hey! I know what you're doing!"

Run.

But he can't. Lu Guang feels small again, feels stuck under disgusted eyes, and feels trapped. He's not the time traveler that's watched his best friend die in his arms over and over again. Or the boy that threw a punch at a man so much stronger than he could ever be.

He's [???] and he's scared.

He's never felt scared of Cheng Xiaoshi before. For, yes. Lu Guang is always scared something will happen- that something will take him away.

But he knows that's not who he's seeing.

"If you don't want to tell me, then that's all you have to say!"

The words were comforting in the past- present? Future-? Where is he? But the raised tone, one that came with being friends with this boy, are- it...

"When have I ever- Lu Guang?" "What have I ever done to you, Lu Guang."

Their voices overlap. Someone he hasn't known since the death of his father and someone he's lost too many times.

"Hey... Guangguang." "Hey!"

Those once warm hands gently jostle his face. Cruel hands tug at his scalp.

"Don't do that-! Look at me-" "DON'T LOOK AT ME-!"

Lu Guang is only catching bits and pieces of things that don't connect. Too many threads, too much red.

"Come on.. come back to me, already-!" "Get out! GET OUT! DON'T COME BACK-"

The thumb that had been so gentle in brushing his eyelash raises again, his cheeks are hot and sticky with salt, and the novel- manga- what is he holding? It drops to the floor anyway.

When he flinches away from that calloused digit, it's only into the meat of the palm holding his other cheek.

Stuck.

Lu Guang can't breathe.

It's not a particularly new feeling, this thief in his chest, but it hurts all the same. Hurts like the first time, hurts like bitten fingernails digging into small arms, like the deaths he can't stop-

The hands leave his face, which is a relief at first- then a nightmare of cold. Cold streaked with wet heat.

Fingers curl around Lu Guang's wrists, thumbs against his palms, and carefully detangle pale hands from paler hair. He hadn't even realized he started tug-tug-tugging at it.

Just as his vision starts to haze at the edges, starts to show him things that he'd thought were over, something connects with his mouth.

Specifically- another one.

It's gentle, more than anything and barely anything at the same time. Just a gentle press that has to feel disgusting with all the tears running down his face.

But it's real.

It's real, and the pale haired boy's hands go limp from where Cheng Xiaoshi has threaded theirs together.

He's not in that house, but he's home.

The dark-haired boy pulls back slowly, carefully, and his cheeks are pink. And Lu Guang's are on fire. What the hell-

"Why would you- What was that for!?" he nearly screeches, and it would throw his roommate back if it wasn't for their connected hands, "You idiot-"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry-" Cheng Xiaoshi yelps, untangling their fingers to throw his up in placation, "I read somewhere that k-kiss- shocking someone could knock them out of a panic attack!"

The fact that he couldn't even say the verb would be endearing, if it weren't also for the fact that Lu Guang still felt hysterical. Now for an entirely different reason.

"And- and I didn't want to hit you, so.."

Those warm hands are cautious this time, when they reach for his face, and he can't help but shrink away from the contact. They end up hovering maybe an inch away.

"...are you feeling b- GUANGGUANG!?"

Kitten grey eyes, or so they're described, roll back.

Despite Cheng Xiaoshi's best efforts, Lu Guang passes out anyway.