Work Text:
Zhehan paced around his apartment. This was stupid. No, he corrected, it was not stupid, it was genius, and the voice telling him it was stupid sounded an awful lot like Xiaoyu and shouldn’t be listened to. It was genius. It was outside the box and inventive, and if it seemed stupid to the Xiaoyus of the world (and to Zhehan’s inner thoughts) that just showed how forward thinking it was.
So assured, Zhehan calmed his pacing.
Then a knock sounded on the door and Zhehan’s inner thoughts spun up all over again.
The guy who was revealed when Zhehan opened the door was hot. Zhehan’s inner thoughts allowed that they could do some stupid things for this opportunity.
“Uh, hi,” the hot guy said, and that voice. Zhehan’s inner thoughts surrendered completely to the genius of Zhehan’s 3am, should-not-have-internet-access thoughts. “You posted the uh, ad?”
“Yup!” Zhehan said brightly. “Come in!”
The ad.
Zhehan was writing a novel. It was going great. It had sworn brothers, fighting, revenge, space aliens, chases, escapes, true love… It even had kissing! Well, it would have kissing…
After using his ample imagination, searching his memory for every time he’d kissed an old girlfriend while she stood on the stairs, and watching increasingly dubious videos, Zhehan had to admit that “write what you know” might be onto something in this case, and he wouldn’t be able to write the romantic crescendo that his heroes deserved without some lived experience.
3am-should-not-have-internet-access Zhehan had a great idea about how to get that experience.
And now the answer to that great idea was standing in his entryway, shuffling his feet.
He was hotter than Zhehan had let himself imagine, even though the guy had said he modeled. “I’m a model and an actor, always looking for new opportunities,” he’d said in his reply, and that made sense to Zhehan—actors probably needed kissing practice too, right? So the guy would also be getting something out of this, in addition to what Zhehan had offered to pay. He was also the least creepy of the replies Zhehan had gotten—really, did no one want to support the arts anymore?--so Zhehan jumped on it.
“Do you want anything to drink? Snacks?” Zhehan asked, remembering himself.
“Water would be great,” Hot Guy said, so Zhehan led them into his kitchen and poured them two waters.
“So,” he began, handing one to Hot Guy. Their fingers brushed. Zhehan did not overreact—in fact he barely noticed—and when he leaned casually back against the counter he did not misjudge the distance and have to do a quick save before falling.
“You said this is for a novel?” Hot Guy asked.
“Yes!” Zhehan jumped at the opening. “It’s an adventure story, with two sworn brothers.” Hot Guy looked genuinely interested, so Zhehan let himself give the long version. “Our hero has been been wandering the jianghu, when suddenly he’s abducted by aliens! But he fights his way free, and when he escapes back to planet earth he’s reunited with his sworn brother, who he thought had died ten years ago! The aliens are manipulating time!” Zhehan paused for a drink. Probably best to get to the reason Hot Guy was here. “So our heroes work together to defeat the alien overlord, and in the final climactic scene they fall into each other’s arms and realize they’ve always been the only one for each other. And I want to describe the kissing really well because it’s important to the narrative,” Zhehan said seriously, “and also it’s hot! The heroes deserves some juicy action! But I want to get all the details right, you know, the angles and everything.”
Zhehan took another sip from his glass. Hot Guy was nodding. “That makes sense. Rehearsals are an important part of getting into the character.” He set his glass on the table. “If you show me what you have so far, we can start the scene?”
Zhehan faltered.
“Oh, or you can just describe it, if you don’t want anyone reading the rough draft yet.”
Zhehan scratched the back of his neck. “Uh.”
Hot Guy was looking at him curiously. “I just need to see the blocking? Or any dialogue?”
“That’ll come to me,” Zhehan said confidently. “Once I start writing that part. Today is more like, background research.”
Hot Guy was looking skeptical, so Zhehan elaborated. “I know the emotional beats of the scene and where they have to be at the beginning and ending of it, but I need to know how to write like, first kisses, happy kisses, ‘I almost lost you’ kisses. Backed-into-a-wall kisses might be good for a later scene,” he pondered. “And then I can build the scene once I know the pieces.”
“Like a skills workshop,” Hot Guy said slowly. “Okay. I’m usually better with scripts, but if you tell me what you need I’ll do my best.”
Something warmed inside Zhehan at the second half of that sentence, but he was mentally galloping on and did not note that.
“Great!” he set his own water down and physically galloped a little into the living room, where he’d cleared some floor space earlier. “So, the hero just defeated Zorgaloft, that’s the alien overlord—”
“Is the hero the POV character?” Hot Guy asked, following him. “Which character is taller? Because you were concerned about angles, right?”
Something warmed again. Xiaoyu usually just rolled his eyes when Zhehan started talking about the invasion of the Zorgzappers, and Hot Guy was already asking questions and remembering what details Zhehan had babbled about. It was probably because this was a job for Hot Guy, and this was something actors did.
Zhehan confirmed that the hero was slightly shorter and the POV character, so Zhehan would fill the role of the hero. Hot Guy would be his sworn brother, who bursts frantically onto the scene, unknowing till that moment if his love, his unrequited love, had perished before he ever got to admit his true feelings—
“—and then he sees him, alive and triumphant, and rushes to him and embraces him—” Zhehan pantomimed— “and then they fall into each other, kissing madly—what is it?”
Hot Guy looked hesitant. “A falling together kiss usually isn’t as fun for viewers,” he said, after Zhehan prompted him with raised eyebrows. “It’s a lot of tongues, very desperate. It’s usually better to be vague about that kind of kiss because the details don’t seem romantic unless you’re actually the one kissing. My director was just telling me this,” he explained, looking sheepish.
“Oh, this is good. I definitely want details.” Zhehan trotted back to the kitchen table and flipped his notebook open. frantic—NO, he wrote. slow=romance++ “But they wouldn’t pause and have a careful first kiss here,” he mused, tapping his pencil. “Zorgaloft’s henchmen are still coming.”
Hot Guy followed him. “Maybe they don’t kiss yet?” he suggested, leaning over the back of a chair.
“Hm,” Zhehan mused. “Hmm!”
After some more thought, he and Hot Guy worked out that the heroes embrace but are interrupted by the henchmen before they can do more than share a fleeting glance, laden with meaning.
Zhehan finished writing laden w meaning, tongue sticking out between his teeth. “Ooh!” he said. “Maybe one of them is injured by the henchmen! And they reunite over his sickbed!”
Hot Guy nodded eagerly. “That’s classic. And since it’s later, maybe they’ve both started to doubt what they saw? Maybe they think they misread the romantic attraction or it was just the heat of the moment.”
Zhehan tapped his pencil against his notebook. “You’re right, they probably would. Ugh! But I don’t want them to doubt.” Still looking at his notebook, he pulled out a chair and sat down. “What if…”
Hot Guy joined him at the table. They tried the sickbed idea from a few approaches before trying a different tack, Hot Guy building on Zhehan’s ideas, even offering some of his own. Shooting ideas back and forth with Hot Guy felt good. It felt natural. Once he’d warmed up to the workshopping, he had great ideas and insight, and responded to everything in that addictively deep voice. Zhehan wanted to keep working just to hear him reply.
As he got up to refill their waters, Zhehan’s eyes landed on the kitchen clock. “Oh shoot, it’s getting late, we need to make out.”
Behind him, Hot Guy choked. He must not have noticed the time.
Zhehan quickly tidied up his notes so he could make sense of them later. “Okay, let’s go.” He hurried back to the cleared living room area, grabbing Hot Guy by the wrist without thinking and pulling him along.
Zhehan stopped, turning to face Hot Guy. He flexed his legs and shook out his arms. “Let’s do it.”
Hot Guy laughed. “You look like you’re getting ready to play sportsball, not kiss someone.”
Zhehan cracked his knuckles and did a hamstring stretch, just to make Hot Guy laugh again. It was such a cute, high-pitched laugh.
“Okay, hold on,” Hot Guy said. “It feels weird to kiss you without knowing your name.”
“Oh.” Zhehan straightened. “Didn’t you say no names, when you replied?”
“I didn’t think it’d feel weird when I didn’t know you,” Hot Guy said. “And I mean, it’s not like I know you-know you, but we kind of know… We don’t have to do names.”
“I’m Zhang Zhehan,” Zhehan said.
Hot Guy smiled. “I’m Gong Jun.”
“Okay, Gong Jun,” Zhehan said, feeling suddenly shy. He hid it under a smirk, tilting his head. “How do you want me?”
Gong Jun choked again. Zhehan grinned.
Gong Jun shook his head. “Okay,” he said, seemingly to himself. “So, no Zorgaloft right now. Just, a kiss.”
He put his hand on Zhehan’s waist and pulled him closer. Zhehan went, and found his own hand coming up to rest on Gong Jun’s shoulder. Like a dance, he thought. Then, I should write that down.
Gong Jun’s other hand came up to Zhehan’s cheek, tentatively, barely touching him.
“Like I’m the love of your life,” Zhehan reminded him.
“Right,” Gong Jun breathed, and kissed him.
It was a very careful kiss. Gong Jun’s hands stayed where he had put them. His lips were plush and warm and didn’t ask for anything more than Zhehan was giving.
At a pause, Zhehan leaned back just enough to speak. “You can relax, you know. I have been kissed before, just only with girls.”
Gong Jun laughed. This close, Zhehan could feel the deep sound reverberate. “Why didn’t you just ask a girl? I’ve been wondering. She could have stood on a stool.”
Zhehan smacked his chest. “That would not be Authentic to my Vision! Come on, Junjun.”
Gong Jun laughed again, his higher laugh this time. Before his smile had completely faded, he closed the gap between them.
This time, Gong Jun melted against him. Zhehan twined his arms around his neck and pulled him close.
Kissing Gong Jun felt very natural, and when Zhehan had time to think about that later, he would wonder if that meant maybe he didn’t need to bother with The Ad and the Lived Experience--if kissing a guy felt so natural, he could have used his imagination anyway.
But he wouldn’t have imagined the way Gong Jun slowly ran a hand up his back and into his hair, tangling his fingers in the strands and tugging just enough to pull his head back. He wouldn’t have imagined the way Gong Jun pressed closer when Zhehan made a soft noise, eager and a little clumsy. He wouldn’t have imagined the feel of Gong Jun’s hair between his fingers, soft and silky, or the feel of Gong Jun’s chest against his, firm and warm.
Somewhere between one kiss and the next, they pulled apart.
“So that was…” Gong Jun started.
“The first kiss,” Zhehan supplied quietly.
“What did…” Gong Jun’s arms were still wrapped around him. Zhehan could feel him breathing hard. “Your list. What other categories did you want to cover?”
Zhehan was trying to remember when an alarm went off.
“Oh.” Gong Jun pulled away from Zhehan to reach his phone. He silenced the alarm. “I need to get to work.”
Zhehan fought down a swell of disappointment. Gong Jun had said when he replied to the ad that he could only stay two hours, which at the time had felt like an absurd amount of time. And they’d had a really productive meeting! Zhehan had lots of material to work with! There was nothing to be disappointed about.
“Right, okay. I’ll send you the money,” Zhehan said, trying to sound not-disappointed.
Something passed over Gong Jun’s face. Should Zhehan offer to pay him more now, since he’d helped with all the character stuff too?
“We didn’t even get to all the other things you needed to research.” Gong Jun sounded actually disappointed. “I’m free again next week, same time, if you—?”
“Yes!” Zhehan agreed before his brain actually caught up. “That would be great. Really, uh, really helpful.”
“Great,” Gong Jun said quietly, and his smile made something warm in Zhehan a third time.
Not examining that feeling at all, Zhehan saw Gong Jun to the door, closed it behind him, and then leaned back against it for a long moment.
He hurried over to his notebook. He had to write this all down, and prepare for next week.