#wouldnt have it any other way tbh this is the most memorable year shift i’ve had in awhile lol

[dinomight]

Some whumptober prompts: Xiao Hua and blindness, with Hei Xiazi helping him through it --- Ransom or auction and Liu Sang ---- Self-induced injuries to escape and XiuXiu ---- "You're still not dead?" and Pangzi ----"Who did this to you" not sure who the whumpee is but Wu Erbai saying it. I would definitely prefer if it had a happy or at least hopeful ending!

ANDDDDD THAT’S A WRAP!!!! fox my beloved here is the last one, as requested!!! thank you so much for sending these in!!!

24. self-induced injuries to escape

Let it be known that Huo Xiuxiu is not offended that she’s been kidnapped. After all, it’s not her first time, and it certainly won’t be her last; in fact, she’s come to find a certain kind of excitement in it. A bit of spice, if you will, to liven up her week.

What is quite offensive is how absolutely incompetent these particular kidnappers are. It would almost be amusing in a way, if that incompetence hadn’t only kicked in when they were tying her up, and not before they’d beaten Xiao Hua unconscious.

“Hold on,” Xiuxiu mutters under her breath as she works at the ropes binding her wrists with a shard of glass. “Hold on, Xiao Hua-gege, just a little longer.”

The glass isn’t the most elegant solution, she’ll admit, but it was the most easily available. Idiots tied her up with rope, and then threw her in the same corner of this cramped room as a couple of broken bottles. She’s not even sure which is worse: the idea that they were too stupid to notice, or that they thought she was too stupid to notice. Either way, Xiuxiu usually prefers the more delicate methods of slipping her bindings, but considering she’s not even sure Xiao Hua’s still breathing—speed is of the essence, at the moment.

Every movement she makes with the glass forces her to bite down on her lip a little bit harder, until she tastes the same sticky iron there that she can feel coating her palms. She’s not sure how many cuts she’s got at this point. Certainly enough to ruin whatever claim she’d had to pretty hands before today.

(The thought doesn’t bother her that much. Of the two of them, Xiao Hua’s always had the better-looking hands, anyways.)

When the rope finally gives, she has to choke back a sob of relief before tossing it and the glass to the side. Her own bloody palms be damned, she scrambles over to Xiao Hua and holds two trembling fingers under his nose.

Whatever relief she’d felt before is a thin note to the chorus that thunders through her when she feels Xiao Hua exhale. “Don’t scare me like that,” she whisper-yells at him, even though he probably can’t hear it. Not that he’d listen even if he could. She keeps going as she struggles to get him on her back, quietly cursing and panting. “I better be your favorite after this, I better not hear one word about Hei-ye for a week after this, I swear—”

She stops herself when she manages to get over to the door. This is the real moment of truth. She hadn’t gotten a good look at the layout of the place on their way in; their kidnappers could be waiting just outside, or they could’ve all left already.

One breath in. One breath out. Xiuxiu shoves the door open.

“Ah, there you are,” Hei Xiazi greets her from just a couple feet away, in what appears to be a badly lit card-playing room. He’s got one hand curled in a half-conscious guy’s jacket collar, the other pulled back in a fist. As she steps, he releases his grip, letting the guy collapse to the floor, taking a folding chair down with him in a loud crash. There are other bodies scattered around, maybe knocked out, maybe dead, she can’t get a good look in before Hei Xiazi’s in front of her.

Xiuxiu immediately leans forward, letting Xiao Hua slide towards him. “Take him, he needs to get to a doctor, they hit him in the head and I don’t—”

Hei Xiazi stops her word vomit with a cluck of his tongue as he shifts Xiao Hua to his own back with ease. (Bastard.) “Doctor’s the first stop, don’t worry. We’ll get you and Hua-er here fixed up in no time.”

“I’m fine,” she says as she follows him across the room to the exit.

That gets her an immediate snort. “You barely touched me and I can still smell your blood all over my jacket. This is my nicest one, by the way.”

“You’d have gotten blood on it anyways, at some point,” she says, frowning, hands held carefully in front of her.

“Sure, but I’d prefer it not be yours.” Hei Xiazi pauses before the door, craning his neck around to look at her. Even with the sunglasses, his gaze feels heavy. “I’m sorry I was late, meimei.”

For a moment, the words just hang between them, a rare glimpse at the human under the hired gun. Then it cracks, as Hei Xiazi grins and adds, “Next time, be a good little damsel in distress and have some patience, okay?”

Xiuxiu rolls her eyes, but as she steps out after him, she thinks: I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

No need to worry about her own hands when there’s always too more pairs willing to catch her, after all.