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The first was hidden.
“Bab…ab…bab…aby!”
His ears filled with an almost mind numbing whine, his vision crossing and blurring as he rubbed his temples.
“…can’t you see I’m calling you?”
Xiao Shiqin’s eyes snapped into focus as the whine faded, his surroundings coming back into focus. He was…walking. Yes, that sounded right, they had just finished a match against Samsara. He promised…something.
“Man, a guy like you should wear a warning sign or something. ‘Addled Mechanic’, just so people don’t bump into you while focused.”
Ah, ice cream with Dai Yanqi. His teammate was unusually insistent after the match, and he needed something to cool his mind. His eyes locked with his teammate’s, or at least he tried to, but she was skipping backwards around him.
“It’s dangerous to skip like that.”
Dai Yanqi gave a small giggle as she stuck her tongue out.
“You’re just jealous that you can’t match my athletic abili-I’m falling!”
Xiao Shiqin’s arm immediately shot out to grab Dai Yanqi’s, only to be caught in a deadlock as she stopped faking a fall and started pulling.
“Now there’s no escape! I can’t wait for you to try this place with me, Chu Yunxiu would not stop talking about this place, and now I need a hit of whatever she got.”
Xiao Shiqin listened idly as he walked along, his mind slowly wandering back to the match they just played. Should he have used Air Compressor on One Autumn Leaf earlier? Or maybe he should ha-
“Baby!”
His mental review was cut short as Dai Yanqi stood in front of him, hand open in expectance.
“Give me it.”
Sighing, he pulled out his wallet and handed it over.
“You’re dangerous to the team budget with the food you buy, you know that?”
“Yeah, but I’m loving it, so it doesn’t matter.”
He sighed, but resigned himself to watching her skip away to buy their food.
It never clicked that night that she was calling him baby.
The second was a touch.
“You’re too high!”
“Well, I can’t come down either, so you’re just gonna have to climb up!”
This time, the whole team of Thunderclap was at a rock climbing gym, under the usual insistence of Dai Yanqi, claiming that it was good for their mental health if their physical health was also good. All he saw was a good chance to injure his fingers.
“Can we just release? I’m losing my head here, spinnin’ ‘round and ‘round.”
In a rather unfortunate incident, Xiao Shiqin had found himself dangling under an overhang, with Fang Xuecai giggling with the other team members as they took a rare picture of Xiao Shiqin.
“Alright, alright, we’ve gotten the pictures, let’s bring our glorious captain back down.”
Dai Yanqi appeared to have taken pity on him, and not a moment too soon. With his feet hitting the ground, Xiao Shiqin crumpled to the mat, breathing deeply in and out as he closed his eyes. Dai Yanqi shooed off the others as she dragged the poor man to the bench nearby.
“Captain, you good?”
“You try spinning for fifteen minutes straight, then ask me again. I can’t even feel my legs anymore cause of the harness straps digging into my waste.”
Dai Yanqi poked his leg.
“Did you feel that?”
“No.”
“What about this?”
The back and forth continued, with Dai Yanqi poking and prodding as he tried to rub feeling back into his legs. To his surprise, she only lasted half a minute before seemingly turning her attention elsewhere.
And so, they sat in silence, watching their teammates climb and fall to great laughter. That is, until he felt a small nip at his ear. His head snapped left, only to be greeted with a cheeky smile.
“Do you feel me now?”
The third was a torrent.
By now, it was a public secret that Dai Yanqi and Xiao Shiqin were romantically involved. Sure, the official stance was that the two were just really good friends, but Thunderclap knew, and if they knew, then so did the other teams. Needless to say, there was a lot of ribbing in the pros chat group, but everyone for the most part was congratulatory. Huang Shaotian called him a traitor, but the group just jabbed more knives at the Blue Rain Monastery.
Their first kiss had poisoned Xiao Shiqin. With a taste of her lips, his mind was on a ride to shutdown, which alarmed him after he shook off the bliss. He initially chalked it up to nerves, and ignored it.
The second did the same, and in his mind, this was an issue. He had never encountered this situation before. After all, Dai Yanqi was his first serious relationship, and so, after some intense deliberation and advice from the only other pro that he knew with a relationship, Fang Minghua, he decided to bring the issue to bear.
“You’re toxic.”
“…I’m sorry, what?”
Xiao Shiqin had brought it up while they were alone in the training room, with almost painful bluntness. Dai Yanqi looked up from her monitor, brow furrowed in confusion at his statement. Her partner continued.
“Every time we kiss, I lose my thoughts. I’m slipping under with a taste of a poison paradise that is your kiss.”
Dai Yanqi looked bemused at the idea.
“So why haven’t you stopped?”
“Cause I’m addicted to you.”
She snorted at his response before crossing over to his setup, arms draping over Xiao Shiqin’s shoulders as she leaned over his chair. Xiao Shiqin tensed at the contact.
“Didn’t I just say that you’re toxic?”
“Yeah? And what else about it?”
The two locked eyes, a tense atmosphere descending upon the room. Sparks seemingly flew as they held this contest of wills for a few moments before Xiao Shiqin broke into a slight smile.
“And I love what you do.”
Dai Yanqi gave another snort as she buried her chin into his shoulder.
“Damn straight. Don’t forget that you’re toxic to me as well. I forget about my show watching sessions with Mumu because of your poisonous lips.”
A chuckle escaped Xiao Shiqin’s lips as he relaxed into his partner.
Toxic lips indeed.