Little short fengqing fic - for @pact-warlock ! Was aiming for 800 words but ended up at 1300... better luck next time!
Feng Xin's dog, Zhenzhen, has somehow gained two pounds in one month.
And he has no fucking clue how.
He hasn't changed her food. He hasn't changed her walking routine. They play with her toys often. She is an active dog. But, somehow, she's still gained two whole pounds.
He has gotten a locking trash can, on the off chance his sweetest-goodest-most-preciousest girl has been secretly scavenging (he knows she has not been). He even read through all the ingredients, additives, and calorie contents on every food bag, treat pouch, supplement, and natural chew toy he gives her just to make sure nothing is amiss.
And everything checks out!
That's the bizarre thing!
Feng Xin really doesn't think she's old enough to be having any health problems that would cause this, but he's scheduled a vet appointment for her anyway. She's really not a fan of having her blood drawn, but Feng Xin is her baba and he has to make sure she's okay.
He doesn't know why that's so hard for Mu Qing to understand.
"She's fine," Mu Qing says.
"You spoil her," Mu Qing says.
"That's unnecessary," Mu Qing says.
Well, what the hell does Mu Qing know? He doesn't even like her anyway.
Feng Xin frowns as he thinks about this and ends up over-fluffing the rice.
Whatever. Mu Qing deserves to eat mushy rice if he's going to be such a dick.
After he finishes plating their food, Feng Xin shuffles his way back out into the living room for the continuation of his and Mu Qing's weekly Movie Date Night.
Tonight, Mu Qing is over at Feng Xin's place which means Feng Xin has cooked for them (he's been practicing!) and it also means he can keep an eye on Zhenzhen.
Who is currently mouthing on something she ought not to be!!!
"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! Hey! What do you have?!"
Feng Xin hurriedly sets their food down on the coffee table, earning a little scoff from Mu Qing whose feet had been resting on the edge of the table and which were promptly scooted off from the force of Feng Xin's shoving.
Mu Qing takes a second to glare at him before he's looking down at his phone again, his free arm crossed over his stomach as he relocates his feet onto the couch in a way that lets Feng Xin know exactly just how burdensome it was for him to do so.
Feng Xin will care about that later. Right now, he's knelt on the ground beside his baby girl, trying to get her to just show him her goddamn mouth.
"Ah—c'mon, sweetheart. Let baba look. Please?"
She's snuffling her sweet little puppy nose down into her blanket, quite clearly guarding whatever it is she has in her mouth with the biggest, most pitiful puppy-dog eyes Feng Xin has ever seen. She looks guilty. It always make Feng Xin feel like the worst baba in the entire world.
He frowns, mostly at himself, and sighs.
With his pointer finger, Feng Xin draws an arc in the air, ending with his fingertip pressed to the floor in front of his puppy's blanket. She watches him do this a second time, ears perking up as her baba speaks.
"Drop it," he says evenly, holding eye contact with Zhenzhen.
And because she's the goodest and the bestest and the sweetestest, she does as she's told, unburying her pretty little snout from her blankets and dropping what was in her mouth onto the floor in front of Feng Xin.
It turns out to be half of a sodden, bone-shaped treat that Feng Xin has never seen before and has most certainly never purchased.
His thick brows knit together as he stares at it in all it's drooly, half-eaten glory.
"What the fuck is… this?"
Feng Xin picks up the treat and Zhenzhen whines, her ears perking up like she's expecting to be offered it again. Uhg. She's such a sweet girl.
"Where did you get this, huh?" he asks her seriously, fixing her with a steady look.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees that Mu Qing is paying them absolutely no mind but has begun to bounce his foot. Always so impatient.
Zhenzhen does not answer him. She just looks at him with her big brown eyes and tilts her head. Feng Xin sighs and scritches her under her chin.
"Mu Qing…" Feng Xin starts, looking at him pleadingly even as he is ignored for Mu Qing's phone instead.
"Hm?" Mu Qing grunts, not looking up. His foot is still bouncing and he's scrolling faster than Feng Xin thinks is reasonable to still be able to read.
Feng Xin sighs again, fishing Zhenzhen's bone toy from amongst her blankets and offering it to her to occupy her.
"What if someone is breaking in?" he asks, voice pitiful.
"What?" Mu Qing drops his hand to his lap and looks at Feng Xin with such a bewildered and completely exasperated expression.
"Have you not been listening to a single fucking thing I've been saying?" Feng Xin snaps, waving the mysterious treat around as he talks. Zhenzhen follows the movement, whining quietly from around her bone.
"What the fuck are you even talking about? Who would be breaking in, Feng Xin?" Mu Qing has an arm crossed around his middle, gesturing with his free hand. The face he's making never fails to piss Feng Xin off.
"Someone who wants to give your damn dog a treat? That's the nefarious deed they're doing? That is so fucking stupid. You probably just don't remember buying them."
And before Feng Xin even has a moment to interject, Mu Qing is snatching his phone back up, face buried in the screen again as he mumbles, "God knows you can't even remember my birthday."
One time! It was one time!!!
Feng Xin groans, nearly crumbling the treat in his fist.
"I know I have never bought treats like this! Why are you being so damn difficult? It's whatever that you don't like her but, for fuck's sake, you can at least try to be helpful, A-Qing."
"Oh my fucking god, Feng Xin!" Mu Qing tosses his phone back down and throws his hands up in the air. He twists in Feng Xin's direction as his arms cross over his chest defensively.
"I gave it to her, alright?"
Feng Xin and Mu Qing lock eyes.
Mu Qing's cheeks are starting to flush.
"I said that I gave it to her. Can we just drop it?"
Zhenzhen immediately drops her bone and sits down.
Feng Xin and Mu Qing stare at Zhenzhen who looks between them with perked ears, her tail wagging.
"You bought Zhenzhen treats?"
"No!" Mu Qing immediately answers, looking offended.
When Feng Xin cocks an eyebrow at him, Mu Qing reluctantly continues, his face growing more red by the second.
"I didn't buy them, alright? I—" He looks away, red all the way up to his ears.
"You made them?"
"What, do you need to get your hearing checked now, too? Yes. Yeah. I made them."
Feng Xin's face trembles a little as he tries, and fails, to hold back a grin. Mu Qing gives him a look that means you better fucking not.
"You do like her," Feng Xin says in spite of the consequences that are sure to follow.
"Stop it," Mu Qing warns, his voice tragically lacking in force now that he's been caught red-handed.
"You love her, don't you?"
"You love her so much you made her her own special treats!"
Zhenzhen excitedly stamps her front paws down, tongue lolling out of her mouth in a big puppy smile as she looks at Feng Xin. She receives the pets she deserves— and the rest of her treat—for being so fucking cute. Feng Xin's tone raises a little as he coos at her.
"Oh, isn't that right Zhenzhen?" he asks her as he rubs her cheeks. "Other baba loves you so much he had to make you special food, huh? He's fattening you up just like he's doing to baba, isn't he?"
Mu Qing covers his face with his hands and groans so loud, he almost muffles the sound of Feng Xin's laugh.