"if i take the whole thing, i'm gonna be useless," which... sounds to shang qinghua like he needs the whole thing.
"do you need to be functional today, bro?" he asks.
shen yuan is silent for a minute.
"hey bro, so i was awake but, where do your meds live," he asks out loud as he trots out into the hallway and pausing cause: bathroom or bedroom.
a pause, and his phone vibrates in his hand.
shen yuan is yawning and listing to the side as he goes, so shang qinghua jerks his eyes away from the *secret merch pile* to hook his arm back into shen yuan's. "i can handle the rest of that," he says, "you're just stacking it in the corner, you should go to bed."
the sweatpants are, as expected, long in the leg and narrow in the waist, but shang qinghua's body is enough of a pear-glass shape that he can shimmy the waistband up to his middle and that does the trick; then all the shirts are comfily big, boxy, and he doesnt have to think too
shen yuan laughs, a little wetly. "is that a no?"
"no," shang qinghua says, muffled, clutching shen yuan's soft sleep shirt. "it's not a no. fuck, bro."
"is it bad," shen yuan asks, "if I'm glad the night ended early?"
shang qinghua was confused. "why would it be?"
"because i hated seeing you on his arm," shen yuan confesses lowly, pulling back, and his eyes are so dark, so intense, that shang qinghua thinks he just might die.
when the car pulls up to shen yuan's building, shang qinghua scrambles out before shen yuan can get any more funny ideas about being a dreamy gentleman doing things all chivalrous-like, and hovers anxiously until shen yuan, wincing, makes his way back around the car.
"hey," he realizes suddenly, cutting shen yuan off. "are you taking me to my apartment, or--"
"oh, i should have asked," shen yuan says. "i mean, i *can*, we're probably closer--but no, i--we're en route to my apartment. i could have the driver change that though?"
"i actually came with nie-xiong," he admits. "but he sort of ditched me instantly, i guess because wei-xiong and his girlfriend showed up?"
"a-xian has a boyfriend," nie mingjue says, confused.
"he came with--i thought they were a woman, but they were wearing a suit, so--"
@vagurbla shang qinghua has about three hours to flip his shizz and generally lose his goddamn mind freaking out before nie mingjue comes to pick him up.
when shang qinghua's hand touches the door, mu qing clears his throat.
he's examining his (perfect) nails. "don't worry too much. as long as you stay under the radar, you won't stick out badly."
baffled, shang qinghua says, "oh... uh... okay. uh. thanks for the--OK YKW BYE."