summary: little headcannons of artem wing as a child till highschool and the family dynamics behind it
characters: artem wing | zuǒ rán and his parents
a/n: this one is a lil angsty—more bittersweet i would say! i tried to keep artem as true to his character as i could,,, i’ll leave some a/n down below too to explain more! enjoy <3
𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐦 (𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 - 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥):
✦ In elementary, he used to wait an extra thirty minutes without complaint for his mother to pick him up. The woman would profusely apologize to her son, pressing a quick kiss to his temple as she hastily got him into the car. She asks him quick questions and he tries not to get too excited because he knows his mother is a busy woman. So he answers with soft replies and pink-tinged cheeks when he remembers something that elated him in class. He completely misses his mothers wistful eyes glancing at him in the mirror like clockwork.
✦ His babysitter would wait for him at home and the exchange was quick. His mother would wave goodbye, at times she’d blow a kiss, and she’d be off to work once more. “Artem is a good kid,” is what all his sitters used to say because Artem would stay quiet and polite and very very rarely did he ask for attention since he understood that busy people could not stop for a moment in their pursuit of ambition.
✦ In second grade, his parents had taken him out to find a Halloween costume. The time alone made his heart flutter and his ears pink (it’s when he learned how important quality time was). He shook his head shyly at every other costume they suggested, knowing if he chose one the day would be over. That and he had never liked the holiday that much. Maybe his Kindergarten teacher was right, maybe he lacked the imagination a child should have (don’t tell his parents that though). In the end, he asks his parents clumsily with shining ocean eyes if he could dress as a lawyer. They find him a suit and a periwinkle tie—oh gods, his mother will not stop grinning and snapping photos. It makes him feel warm, so he lets her take a few more.
✦ When little Artem had come down with a nasty cold that didn’t leave for a worrying amount of time, he found himself writhing in his tiny bed, clutching onto the sheets. The house was cold as it always was but he felt as though he were on fire. A coughing fit and a sitter calling his parents is the last he remembers. Though when night comes, something cool presses against his forehead. He cracks his tired eyes open finding it odd that he’s pressed against something familiar, that wasn’t the comfort of his bed. Shhh, someone whispers in a deep voice, rubbing circles into his back, Go back to bed. It’s a vague, vague memory that he’s convinced he made up in his fever-delirious mind. S-School… he croaked out, shifting upright. When he looks up once more he recognizes the silver eyes that look down on him. His father. It’s okay, you can miss a day Artem, murmured his father, pressing his cold hands on Artems forehead. The boy leans into the touch. I’ll be here when you wake up, said Mr. Wing as if he had known what Artem was thinking. I promise you, my love.
✦ At the start of middle school, the sitters are long gone. He’s been walking home now for years yet this time, he dreads the cold and lonely house that waits for him. He wants to call his parents when the sun begins to set because they aren’t home yet but he doesn’t want to disturb them.
✦ It’s the summer going into ninth grade when Artem decides to learn how to cook. He’s efficient enough to make basic meals without burning the house down and… he’s not sure why but he can’t stomach the take-out that he gets during the majority of the week when his parents leave him with a credit card and an apologetic note.
✦ He saves every single note.
✦ He’s surprised to find out that cooking is easy, fun—therapeutic. He sits alone in his dining room, diligently typing his thesis while a bowl of congee cools beside him. It’s at the last sentence of his essay does he stop to realize his food has gone cold, almost as cold as the aura that suffocated his family house. Yet, he still tries it and he still something small, something melancholic flitters in his eyes. I wish they could try it too… Artem swallows back the thought with a spoonful of congee.
✦ [He still leaves extras in a tupperware container in the fridge on the off chance they come home hungry]
✦ The week after, he finds a worn out book open in the kitchen. He instantly recognizes it as the family cookbook his mother would try pluck recipes from. Truthfully, he’s unsure why it’s there but he has his guesses. A small smile tugs at his lips and his chest becomes ridiculously warm. When Artem grabs the book he doesn’t see the note that slides out of the pages. Written in black ink it read, I found this for you, love. It looks like you’ll be needing it more than your father and I ever have. Love, Mom.
✦ [When Mrs. Wing comes home at the dead of night, shrugging her blazer off with a sigh, she’s surprised to see the note left on the ground. Her lips purse into a tight line but she says nothing more, crumpling it up in the palm of her hand before she throws it in the trash.]
✦ Artem Wing does not resent his parents. They’re thriving and they’re trying and they’re doing their best. That’s what he understands. Even so, it’s only natural when his heart lurches in his chest during another late night study in the Stellis’ public library without even a buzz from his phone. Since he had started high school, he tried to avoid the suffocating isolation that was his home. He would spend days and nights studying until there was a little outline of bags under his eyes. Calls and texts became less and less frequent now that he was older though sometimes, he wishes he wasn’t.
✦ Artem does not expect his mother to be home for his seventeenth birthday. So he stares at her with his ocean eyes wide when he comes back from the library around ten, with his mother asleep on the sofa, sitting upright. There’s a neatly wrapped gift in her hands. Mom? He had whispered guiltily. At the sound of her son, Mrs. Wings sky-blue eyes begin to flutter and she looks at him with a soft smile. Happy Birthday Artem, she said sleepily, Your father was waiting for you too but he had to go. I’m sorry, my love. She holds out the gift in her hands which Artem slowly takes in his own. I’m sorry... I thought you both were working... he murmured. Artem pressed a kiss onto his mothers forehead, Thank you Mom, he says.
✦ Holidays are a busy time of year. Stores purge their storages while customers splurge their checks to buy the best of decorations, the best of gifts for the people they hold in their hearts. Snow has begun to set in Stellis but Artem doesn’t mind. He’s used to the cold. Christmas Eve is spent alone, baking cookies in the kitchen while he quietly hums to traditional Chinese opera. Christmas Day is like a routine, something he’s grown accustomed to. Artem takes a fresh batch of cookies to his parents' law firm, wrapping them in a box with a burgundy bow for the season. Of course, he doesn’t see them. An assistant tells him they’re with a client and for the millionth time Artem assures the assistant it’s okay when he hands the box over. Merry Christmas, carrying the ache in his heart with grace.
✦ Though, he misses when his father leaves his office, eyes wide at the sight of his son exiting the building. Artem, he wants to call out to him but Mr. Wing swallows it back because the doors have already shut. Merry Christmas, Artem, he says in his heart.
✦ His mother and father FaceTime him the morning of his high school graduation. Artem awoke to the cold comforting him for one last time. We’re so proud of you, grinned his mother. She still retained her young looks but age and work most likely, had hardened her eyes. We’re sorry we can’t make it, chimed his father. His parents had been called for a case out of Stellis nearly two weeks ago. They were planning to come but their flight had been pushed back despite their attempts to find a different plane. He brushes it off with ease, thanks them with care. It’s okay, Artem replied. It doesn’t really matter, the ceremony is just a formality anyways.
✦ He misses the guilty look the two of them share.
✦ He carries the ache, the warmth, the ambition in him so quietly when he’s called to accept his diploma. For he, started out as a Wing.
a/n: oookaay,,,, what i was gonna say was to be honest, i feel like artem wouldn’t be the type to be super teenage angsty about his parents working all the time. i think he’d understand and respect it, as well as admire them both. however, i do think that there’s a tiny, almost silent, part of him that wishes he got to spend more time with them. after all, that’s what children need. he’s kinda the type of character who would help someone else before ever helping his self and he’s shy and clumsy with affection so i think it would be hard for him to communicate it as we’ve seen before lmao. and yes, we haven’t heard much from his parents but i do think they adored him bc,,, like,,, he’s artem??? also, if you found any grammatical errors no you did not ;v;
