There was a comfort in knowing that when he opens his eyes, Lan Zhan was going to be there.

His apartment had never felt so full and in such a good way. PoPo was in the living room, and the kids were in their bedroom; sweet, loving Lan Zhan was here in his arms, and life simply couldn't get any better.

He sighed, eyelids still too heavy to open, but he smiled when he felt eager lips on his cheeks, his forehead and then the best, his lips.

Sugary drugging kisses that never felt like enough, a high of feeling good, of wanting more and more...

He must have fallen asleep afterwards, because Wei Ying wakes with a jolt. Rubbing his eyes, he tries to remember what his dream was about, the remnants of which were still lurking in his subconscious. But like trying to catch water with his fingertips, the more he tried, the further it slipped away.

Frustrated, he wakes up to see beautiful golden eyes staring back at him.

Lan Zhan has the most amazing eyes, capable of conveying emotions like a weather chart. Cold and frosty towards those he did not care about, to heated with warmth towards him. Wei Ying rolls over onto him.

"Good morning, Sweetheart!" He whispers this against impossibly soft lips, before kissing him again.

"Mn. Good morning....Babe." Lan Zhan looks incredibly embarrassed having said that.

Wei Ying takes one look at his face and starts giggling.

He can't even speak yet.

Lan Zhan wants to die of mortification and closes his eyes. That's nowhere near enough and he has to throw his arm across his eyes, too.

"My love...you don't have to use a pet name, if you don't want to." Wei Ying tells him, placing a warm kiss at the corner of his mouth.

"Wei Ying laughed at me."

"No! No, I would never!" Wei Ying hugs him closer. "It was just so unexpected, you caught me off guard. You can call me whatever you want to, it's fine. Maybe you can experiment with different ones until we find what works the best?"

Lan Zhan relented and let his arm be taken away from his face.

"Mn." In fact, he was starting to like that idea more and more.

After all, being in a relationship often entailed walking along unfamiliar paths until one figured out where they were.

"Though I must confess..."

Oh, Lan Zhan was very much invested in this! He opened his eyes to look at the most beautiful man in the world (™).

"Mn?"

"I like it the best when you say my name." Wei Ying blushes hard.

Lan Zhan might not be able to see the beauty of it clearly in this semi darkness of early morning, but he can certainly feel the heat radiating off his beloved.

"I like saying Wei Ying." Lan Zhan tells him, enjoying the way Wei Ying's shiver is a head to toe one.

Wei Ying rests his cheek against Lan Zhan's chest, closing his eyes. It's a Friday and soon they will have to get up to start the school day routine, so these moments beforehand are doubly precious. He thinks about everything they've got to do today.

"Lan Zhan?" It's silly, because Wei Ying knows Lan Zhan isn't asleep, can't sleep anymore, and yet he likes receiving the affirmative.

"Mn?"

"What was it like living in that big house? How did you start calling Da Tuzi that?"

Lan Zhan thinks back to that day, all those years ago, when Fei Yang became Da Tuzi. He can't even remember what he used to call the older man anymore.

"My Uncle was put in a difficult position, having to suddenly look after two children. The seriousness of the weight on his shoulders made him stricter, less tolerant because he was scared of failing. I see that now." Lan Zhan worked through his feelings slowly, letting himself release the tension he hadn't been aware of.

Wei Ying was glad that he was opening up in the first place. And now that it had started, he wasn't going to do anything to stop what was, for Lan Zhan, a verbal diarrhoea.

"When I came back from hospital, after my mother had passed away, I was lost. Everything had changed for me, and my brother. Our mother was no longer in our home, and I had not realised how much her presence there meant so much to us. To know that we couldn't go running to her room, that she wouldn't be there, ready to sweep us into her arms with a warm hug...it was devastating.

"And harder for me. Xiongzhang had witnessed the funeral; and Uncle was already telling him things like, "boys don't cry" and other such nonsense. Our rooms were next to each other, and I often heard him crying into his pillow at night. He still used to talk to our mother, as if she was right there.

"Uncle did not understand why I couldn't make myself talk. Or eat. We would sit for hours on the dining table, with Uncle refusing to let me go until I had finished eating, but there were days when it was supremely difficult to open my mouth. He would leave when other duties became imperative for him to go and complete, with strict orders for no one to let me stand up until my plate was clean.

"But Da Tuzi would tell him that it was alright, he would handle it. He used to take me into the kitchen where it was warmer, sit me on the table next to the fire, and make me fresh food in bunny shapes. The first time he did that, I was so surprised, I ate a whole apple."

Lan Zhan can feel a damp spot on his chest; Wei Ying is crying.

For him.

His big palms rest on his back, rubbing soft soothing circles there, in the hopes of comforting him.

"I'm just glad that you had someone looking out for you." Wei Ying whispers.

"He called me *Xiao Tuzi (*little bunny) and himself, Da Tuzi. His nurturing brought me out of that dark place, and there were even times when a scraped knee made me run to him, rather than Xiongzhang or Uncle. I found it difficult to forgive Uncle."

"Why?"

"After my return from that horrible place," Lan Zhan says, meaning the hospital, "I went into my mother's rooms, only to find all traces of her vanished. Even the sheets on her bed had been washed, the room aired out so not even her gentle perfume lingered in the room. Da Tuzi found me in the wardrobe that bore the faintest traces of her, still. Apparently, I had cried myself to sleep in the dark. As a child, I blamed my Uncle for not letting me say goodbye to her, not realising he had done what was common practice in a typical Asian household. They had even hired a priest to come and exorcise her quarters. My father soon left after that."

"Childhood sucked for both of us," Wei Ying murmurs.

"Mn," Lan Zhan says, his arms tightening.

"So...I'm not looking forward to talking with your Uncle this morning." Wei Ying swallows hard.

"Mn. Neither am I." Lan Zhan admits, regretfully. "But I think he may not be the one we need to see."

"Why?"

"Do you remember how Da Tuzi was looking at your locket? I think he must know something, and I bet he'll be far more forthcoming, if we can get him alone." Lan Zhan says quietly.

It was time to stop circling important issues and ask direct questions now.

Lan Zhan couldn't get rid of the feeling that time was running out.

****************

The children are finishing off their breakfast with PoPo when Lan Zhan goes to find Wei Ying.

It's not hard to find him in this small apartment, and Lan Zhan can hear his heartbeat to guide him.

When he pushes the door of their bedroom open, he finds Wei Ying sitting on their bed. His locket is in between his fingers and he's swinging it around aimlessly, lost in thought. There is a melancholic beauty in the action, as if Wei Ying isn't really thinking about what his hand is doing.

He barely registers Lan Zhan coming to sit next to him, the sinking of the springs in their mattress as Lan Zhan lowers himself in place. They still have some time before they have to go.

Lan Zhan tastes the air around his boyfriend, trying to get a read on his mind, and where his emotions are. He can sense nothing distressing yet.

"My grandmother said this is a key..." Wei Ying says so quietly, that Lan Zhan wonders if it was a thought instead of words said out loud.

He suddenly stops flipping it around and opens it.

That's when Lan Zhan notices the knife.

A frisson of awareness hits him as he realises what Wei Ying is about to do.

Wei Ying talks softly throughout, his gaze concentrating on the item in his hands, explaining himself.

"She said her photo was in here, right?" Wei Ying doesn't wait for Lan Zhan to say anything. "And then I really looked at it, wondering how two photos could fit inside such a small space. They'd have to be glued down, at least the original, because there's not a lot of room inside this. And then I noticed that my mother's photo was raised a little bit. It's genius, really." His voice is wet.

Lan Zhan is at a loss as to how to make him feel better.

And yet he carries on talking.

His fingers find the knife next to him, and he pries the photo of his father out of its place. Sure enough, there's Baoshan Sanren, looking exactly as she does now, not an extra wrinkle on her face, not a hair out of place. Wei Ying looks at it for a few minutes and then puts his father's picture back, where it belongs.

Then, he slides the sharp knife under the photo of his mother.

This is more difficult than the other one, and the knife slips, nicking his finger.

A tiny folded piece of paper falls out, and it appears blank until two drops of his blood land on its whiteness. Morbidly beautiful, the contrast of red and white, so stark and vital, makes Wei Ying gasp.

Or so that's what Lan Zhan thinks, until the black colour of ink appears, just like magic.

Wei Ying glances at Lan Zhan now, the sorrow in his eyes changing to a growing excitement.

This is a message left to him from his mother.

A last communication from someone who he will never ever get to talk to again.

Wei Ying takes a deep breath and unfolds the tiny piece of paper.

**************

A/N

Dear Beautiful Readers,

I found the whole pet names thing really funny, and I'm still giggling myself, because Lan Zhan is really trying, okay??

What other ones will he try? I get the feeling that he's gonna wanna antagonise certain people with his creativity, hehe...

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Charlie

P.S.

Let's ignore the cliffhanger unless you want to take a guess at what the message might mean.