wangxian au where bi disaster wwx says out of the blue "we're playing gay chicken now" and walks away. the game is on.
lwj has no idea what that means. his mind is just... well i am gay... should i get a chicken?

wwx had that idea while drinking with nhs and he just thinks it's nice, avoids thinking too much about his own feelings completely.

so yeah, it's just to get a reaction out of lwj, who surely will lose.

lwj agrees to it at first because he has no time to react before wwx walks away and he legit thinks it means something to do with an actual chicken.

he googles it that night and goes "... oh"

when lwj finally gets what wwx meant there are stages to his reaction.

first, he is offended wwx would assume he's straight.

then he moves into disappointment over realising that means wwx is straight after all (he had seen him flirting with girls, but he had hopes).

very quickly lwj's mind settles into the final stage, though: if this is gay chicken and wwx is straight, not correcting him on being gay means he gets to win really easily.

... and maybe his horny mind wants to see exactly what wwx will do too.

they never discuss any of it and for a while lwj even thinks wwx might have dropped it. well, you don't just play gay chicken in front of the entire university, right. wwx waits for a better opportunity.

they're studying together.
well, lwj is studying, wwx has been mostly choosing exactly which lofi hip hop - beats to relax/study to playlist he's going to put on before he starts doing any actual work.
then he smiles at lwj in a way that should have been a warning.

lwj is too focused on his notes to see it, but soon his book is taken out of the way by wwx. he is still smiling as he approaches lwj slowly to sit on the desk where the book used to be.

lwj's mind is just oH GOD OH FCK ALARMS SIRENS I THOUGHT I WAS READY I WAS NOT WHAT IS HE D-

he looks very put together, though. there is no hint of his gay panic on his face.

"lan zhaaaaan," wwx drags his name, adjusting his legs so they're on either side of lwj's body and he's facing him. "don't be mad, you've studied enough"

usually, lwj would protest, but this time he doesn't this time. instead he looks up in a vulnerable way that almost breaks wwx.

almost, he's here to win.

wwx's fingers barely ghost lwj's lips before they settle on his chin. "are you still playing?" he asks.

he knows lwj is still playing - that's the game, after all. he's making the move, lwj has all the liberty in the world to move away.

he just wants to make sure lwj hasn't rejected him yet.

lwj knows that much, so he offers a tiny nod just to assure him, still looking up.

wwx is looking for the biggest impact first. he expects no less than lwj jumping out of his chair and him having a good laugh about it, after that he promises himself to play fair.

so he just goes for it. he leans closer and closer, places a kiss right on lwj's lips.

[hey, just a reminder that qrts, rts and replies on the tweets as i go are how i measure if people are still interested in this, so if you like it feel free to react how you see fit and i'll keep going, maybe turn it into ao3 fics]

wwx moves slow enough that lwj should have been out of his chair by the time he reaches him, but he doesn't stop. he realises he may have underestimated his opponent when soft lips meet his.

it barely even lasts a second.

the shock that washes through wwx makes him break the kiss and make some space between them again.

there is silence.

lwj is just looking at him, still no reaction.

what the fck just happened.

both of their minds as they stare at each other in silence:

"ayia lan zhan, you really are playing" wwx finally says, then lets out a nervous chuckle "guess i'll have to step up my game"

"is that a promise?" lwj replies

wwx's eyes widen for a second "... did you just tease me?"

lwj is pushing his chair away from the table.

"oh my god, you just teased me."

lwj needs a moment. he gets up, starts walking out of the room.

"DON'T THINK THAT MEANS YOU'LL WIN, LAN ZHAN"

they both drop it for the day, mostly because they're frantically trying to learn how to cope with the fact they just kissed. for a second or two, but they still very much kissed.

they're both on edge all the time after that.

it turns out kissing once in that context makes you suddenly hyper aware of everything the other person does. they take some time before they really manage anything akin normalcy, but wwx is anything but patient.

two days later, he starts playing fair.

ish.

clearly the element of surprise did nothing on lwj and made it worse for himself, so he decides teasing is the path to go.
(wwx has always been someone who touches a lot and breaks the lines, so he takes advantage of that.)

they're studying together again, and this time wwx is actually doing work. he mutes the music that has been blasting on his headphones to be aware of his surroundings (mostly lwj) but doesn't take them off to avoid giving himself away.

he places a hand on lwj's knee.

it is very, very casual. he's still looking at his book, now faking being focused, trying to tell lwj's reaction.
lwj makes the tiniest pause to look at wwx's hand before going back to his notes.

wwx tries not to smile.

for the following 10 minutes, wwx actually goes back to studying, leaving his hand there, stroking it with his thumb like it's nothing but their usual routine.
then his fingers find the inseam of lwj's trousers and he starts tugging on it a little, playing with it. no reaction.

his hands slowly but surely starts to trail up to lwj's thigh, following the inseam's trail. when he's high enough he spreads his hand on top of lwj's leg, drumming a song with his fingers, still pretending to be distracted.

(it doesn't fool lwj)

wwx's hand continues its path to lwj's inner thigh, and if lwj seemed unaffected at first, now he's definetely having a harder time focusing. he puts down his pen, looks at wwx.

that stops nothing. wwx slips his fingers just a little closer, almost there.

lwj can feel his ears burning read and his heart racing with the slow and deliberate tease, and though he would like to discover where that goes... it seems too vulnerable a position to allow his straight friend to touch him and see how easily he can cause that reaction.

"wei ying."

wwx fakes a frown, uses his other hand to take off his headphones and turns to him. "did you say something?" he says, moving his fingers just a little closer.

"/wei ying/." lwj repeats, his voice loud, clear and tense.

wwx can't stop his smile now, breaking his attempt of pretending he has no idea what lwj is talking about. "do you want me to stop?" he says.

do you want to lose?, is the subtext in his tone.

his hand doesn't move as they're once again staring at each other in silence. lwj doesn't mind losing as much as he minds losing /this/, whatever it is.

"what are you doing?", he settles on. if wwx is playing like that, he'll at least force him to acknowledge it.

acknowledging it is among wwx's least favorite things, right up there with remembering his sister kisses jin zixuan regularly and dogs chasing him.

for lwj's relief, he takes his hand away from his thigh.
less relief inducing, he uses it to tuck lwj's hair behind his ear.

"am i too good, lan zhan?" he says softly, resting his head on his free hand and playing with lwj's hair.

lwj closes his eyes. his ears burning are embarrassing enough. wwx lets his fingers move to his neck, then go through his hair gently again.

"are you going to tell me to stop, lan zhan?"

lwj opens his eyes again and looks at wwx. he feels hot all over and his skin is aching, but he focuses on keeping his breath even.

he lacks the control to hide his expression going right back to vulnerable, and that is just as hard for wwx to handle.

"you could never be too good, wei ying."

anyone else would mean to undermine wwx's abilities, but not lwj. his tone is soft, well intentioned, open, and wwx knows exactly what he means.

wwx frowns as his chest explodes in at least three different ways and he desperately tries to keep himself afloat.

"you can't say things like that, lan zhan." wwx whines, dropping his hand.

lwj raises his eyebrows just slightly. /and you can?/, is read clearly in his expression.

"well, you meant that! that's not fair!" wwx complains.

"i did." lwj says simply.

wwx looks at him, sighs, makes a series of exasperated movements with his hands that really just mean he is malfunctioning, then leaves the room.

it takes wwx a full week to recover from that.

... lwj might never recover.

wwx's mind: okay. no kissing. that was (checks clipboard) not very successful. teasing (makes notes) gives lwj time to say... and be... jsdfhdhfkgjkldfj (notes are unclear).

he comes up with a better plan.

the hardest part of wwx's plan is the waiting. there is no deadline, after all, he just needs the situation to be right.

he waits another week, hoping lwj will get to the place he needs him to without any nudging, but it turns out it's harder than expected to get lwj into a bed.

the harder wwx tries to suggest it without it looking like he's suggesting it, the more lwj picks up on his plan and makes it difficult.

has difficult ever stopped wwx? no, it hasn't.

wwx invites himself over to study in lwj's room, which wouldn't be that different from their usual routine. this time he barely drops his backpack aside before he's had enough of waiting, though.

he places his hands on lwj's chest and pushes him.

lwj is more than strong enough to stop him, but he is unsure of what wwx wants, so he lets himself be pushed as he steps back.
before he knows it his legs meet his bed and he allows his body to fall down with wwx's strength and sit down.

a mistake.

lwj looks up at him and wwx reaches to smooth over his furrowed brow, then cup his face gently.

"tell me how losing feels, lan zhan." wwx teases.
"i would not know." lwj replies.

wwx smirks and steps closer. he takes time and watches lwj's reactions, making his way into his personal space very deliberately. hands placed on lwj's shoulders, he puts his knees on the bed, then slowly takes over his lap.

"are you sure?" wwx asks.

lwj answer comes with his hands being placed gently on wwx's hips.
"mmmm, you're bold today" wwx says, "let's see how long that lasts"

wwx presses his lips against lwj's neck once. the tension it creates is visible, so he does it again, taking more time than the first. by the third kiss he allows his tongue to touch lwj's skin, exploring it to the very best of his abilities.

"tell me to stop" wwx whispers.

lwj doesn't. he closes his eyes and grips wwx's waist a little tighter, a flood of crisis takes over - should he stop wwx? is this wrong? should he tell him he's gay? is this a good time to come out? -, but he doesn't.

wet kisses continue to make their way wherever wwx can reach

wwx's mind is insistently wondering why the hell lwj hasn't stopped him yet, why the hell he's enjoying this so much himself, what his reasons are to keep going exactly, but he pushes it all down in order to focus. priorities are important and his is kissing lwj's neck right now.

lwj's reactions are tiny but are there, and wwx is watching. he makes it his mission to find a particularly sensitive spot on lwj's neck, and when he does he sucks on it gently.

"tell me to stop, lan zhan", he whispers again.

lwj doesn't. one of his hands slide up wwx's waist, sparing no doubt that he is teasing back as it trails up his back and stops at the back of his neck, his fingers holding wwx's hair without pulling. wwx lets out "fuck" under his breath in response.

"lan-er-gege" wwx whines, meaning it as a complaint on lwj's fairness.

lwj parts his lips as a familiar sensation goes up his spine, takes over his stomach, explodes in his chest. this might be too much for him to handle, after all.

"wei ying." lwj says, and his voice is broken. wwx smiles. "i want..."

/you to stop/, wwx's mind completes. his heart is racing with the victory coming, he doesn't even think about what that means.

"... more." lwj says instead.

wwx stops for a moment, sitting back to properly look at lwj. his cheeks are a little flushed, his pupils are dilated, and he's so out of his natural composed self wwx can only wonder how he looks like himself.

he wants to ask the questions that burn him, but he doesn't manage.

the game of gay chicken is a little lost on him by this point, buried by all the doubts lwj's word brought up. the walls he so carefully put up - humor, denial, avoidance - crumble with his resolve.

wwx gets closer again, his lips ghosting over lwj's, their breaths mixing.

wwx pulls back to hold lwj's gaze again.

where does gay chicken end?

he bites his lower lip to contain a smile.

when is the line crossed?

lwj's arms wrap further around him.

how far is too far?

... wwx kisses lwj, for he does not know.

wwx crushes his lips against lwj's and wraps his arms around his neck, desperately chasing the kiss.

lwj wants more, he will get more.

the kiss is rushed and full of urgency in a way that should communicate how much they want it. things escalate without much thought as they search to touch, feel, taste.

it all seems to happen so quickly. wwx loses track of time, lwj grabs his waist with both hands to bring him closer, they can /feel/ each other. wwx breaks the kiss and lets out a small sound against lwj's lips at the realisation, moving his hips by instinct.

wwx's phone rings loudly, they both freeze.

wei ying's foolproof plan. step one: get lwj on a bed. eases him into a false sense of comfort. step two: make sure to tease, but not for too long. it prevents him from being soft and gentle and winning. step three: get on his lap. if all else fails, get close without kissing.

important thing to remember, he must not kiss (lwj apparently deals with that better than he does? information filed under "unexplained"), he must not allow lwj to talk for too long. simple.

step four: have a way out that does not involve losing (just in case he's the one that gets overwhelmed for a third time).

yeah, about that.

he forgot he included that step.

they are frozen as the phone rings, looking at each other with increasingly cruel sobriety, still out of breath and very close. wwx's lips barely brush against lwj's a last time before he forces his body to move.

he can feel the tightness in lwj's trousers matching his own, and then he can't anymore. wwx starts peeling his body away from him, little by little making distance so he can stand up again. his phone insistently blasts the most annoying noise he has ever heard.

his legs seem to have abandoned ship for some reason, and he can only hope he's not so obviously affected as he retrieves the phone from his backpack.

"hey," wwx says as he answers it, knowing who to expect on the other end, adjusting his hair and looking at the ceiling.

at first wwx mostly mumbles "mmm" in agreement as he feels his heart racing. he looks from the ceiling to the opposite wall, then at the door - anywhere but at lwj, really.

"you can stop now, nhs." wwx says, quietly. "ᵉᵛᵉʳʸᵗʰᶦⁿᵍ ᶦˢ ᶠᶦⁿᵉ"

who do you think will win? yes you have to pick one

[there are two reasons why i do no tws for these threads: i literally have no idea where they're going i figure that out when i open add tweet, and bc it's never dark

BUT following tweets might fall on the soft side of canon-typical anxiety, keep that in mind]

wwx drags the moment where he hangs up to give himself a little more time. he feels numb all over when he puts the phone down.

lwj is the first to speak.

"wei ying,"

he raises a hand between them to stop lwj from talking. he's sure his friend is about to be proper, sweet, caring, kind, amazing. lwj probably has all the right words to say. he can't have that.

his head spins with all the rumours he has heard about himself before. that he takes advantage of lwj. that he doesn't know when to stop. that he's promiscuous, deceiving, bad. that he's not worth the floor under his feet.

and maybe they're all right, aren't they?

wwx feels at a loss of words for once in his life, chocking on all the things he wish he could make clear to the person who knows him deeply, better than anyone else. but panic creeps in and he loses himself very quickly into his concern.

why the would he put lwj, kind-hearted, light bringer, honorable lwj in that ridiculous situation? he loses the grip he had on all these mental gymnastics that lead them there, and now all he can think of is

did i lose control? did i cross the one line i should have respected?

lwj is silent at his request and they exchange a glance that tells him lwj is already concerned. he wants to make it better, but right now his judgement is clouded by the waves crashing inside of him.

wwx: "i once thought of you as a friend"

he doesn't say why or what things changed. he doesn't explain he wants nothing more than to be better /for/ him. he doesn't allow lwj to give him a speech on communication this time. he doesn't want it.

he knows.

he's just trying to protect lwj the only way he knows how to.

"i still am", lwj says.

he is hurting, but he fills in the blanks wwx leaves for him. it's gay chicken. wwx is straight, it's right there in the rules of the game.

lwj hasn't told him yet, and it's too late now.

he watches as wwx leaves and does nothing to stop it.

[press f to pay respects]

lwj spends the following 13 days blaming himself, hope all but lost on him.

he's alone at the library studying when he hears a book falling to the ground.

he has no idea what caused it, but manners demand he picks the book up to put it back on the shelf, and when he does so a note slips out of it.

... all there is in it is a very detailed drawing of a chicken.

lwj stares at the drawing for a long time, questioning his sanity.

there is no way that's a coincidence. what are the odds.

he looks around.

there was only one person apart from lwj that knew about the game, right?

you'd think at this point lwj is better than this and able to stop himself from making assumptions based on wishful thinking, but you'd be wrong.

15 minutes later lwj finds himself still holding an unnecessarily dramatic depiction of a chicken as he knocks on wwx's door.

wwx opens the door holding a similar ridiculously well drawn chicken, which has both of them taken back from their original plan.

they stare at each other as their minds try to make sense out of it.

"damn, that's a kinda gay looking chicken you got there." wwx says, trying to break the tension.

lwj hands wwx the chicken's drawing while looking extremely serious, then walks past him into the apartment.

"ok, i can tell my approach didn't work," wwx continues as he grabs the drawing and closes the door, "guess i'm just gonna have to wing it."

"... get it? cause it's a c-

lwj corners wwx against the door.

wwx, unable to finish explaining his pun, clutching the two accidentally acquired chickens to his chest, pressed against the door just:

"tell me the rules." lwj says.

he is too gentle. wwx stutters in his words.

"w-... what? lan zhan. no. you sh-" he stops, takes a deep breath. "you should walk away, this was a stupid idea, and i shouldn't have drag-"

lwj gets closer. wei ying shuts up.

"two straight people make advances," lwj recites the rules as he read them, leaning even closer "until one of them chickens out", he lets out, gently removing the drawings from wwx's fingers and dropping them to the floor.

lwj allows his lips to ghost wwx's, mimicking the teasing he had experienced himself.

"you are not qualified to play that game." lwj continues.

wwx offers no answer, swallowing down his protests as he closes his eyes and rests his head against the door.

lwj takes the lack of protest as a good sign, their bodies now fully against each other.

lwj needs to know he's right.

wwx is trying not to die - but if he does that would be a lovely way to go, after all.

"use your words, wei ying." lwj insists, pressing a kiss to the corner of wwx's lips.

granted, it takes a few seconds to pull himself together. when he does he has a particular look in his eyes that makes it worth waiting for.

"do you need me to beg, lan zhan?" he says, his teasing tone back "i will"

effortless in the way he guides wwx to wrap his legs around him, lwj applies more force to press them together.

"then beg."

lwj: i have all the patience and the time in the world to tease him

wwx:

[this thread will now have a proper ao3 ending soon, will post the link here when i recover from taking my wisdom teeth out]