Summary: Dan Heng, the Astral Express’ quiet guard and archivist, hides a side no one knew about him till this day… except you. After eating a cake provided by Ruan Mei, you returned to the Express with the ability to hear others’ thoughts upon physical contact, and what you heard from your good friend Dan Heng wasn't particularly family-friendly…
Tags: Mildly suggestive, slowburn, reader is a Nameless, Cherry Magic inspired fic, Dan Heng is a simp, pining, slight jealousy, Trailblazer’s gender is unspecified, accidental wingwoman Ruan Mei
You had no idea what you had just gotten yourself into.
Well, you did, but you didn’t think it’d escalate to this much…
You were dragged by the Trailblazer after they were requested help by Ruan Mei at the Herta Space Station, and not wanting to head there alone, they invited you to come along after receiving permission from Ruan Mei.
It didn’t take long before the both of you stood opposite the peculiar woman, her gaze undeniably fixed on the most interesting “lab rat” of hers — or so you’d like to call it. She barely even spared you a glance throughout the entire interaction! As expected from the elusive Ruan Mei.
Both you and the Trailblazer consumed an innocuous dessert she had prepared herself, its effects a mystery to the two of you. And though you knew little of what it contains, you didn’t think much of it upon eating. After all, it seemed considerably harmless, and the taste was pretty much akin to how it looked — a typical red velvet cake.
That was until you and the Trailblazer got back from the Astral Express and naturally gravitated towards Dan Heng, who had stationed himself right at one of the armchairs of the parlor car with a book in hand, its paperback atrociously folded around the spine.
“Dan Heng, you really should start treating those poor books with more care,” you grumbled, edging your seat next to his and leaning close, close enough to touch shoulders as you peered into the contents of his book. “My eyes can’t bear to witness your abominable habit of folding them like that,” you dramatically sighed while the Trailblazer snickered in support.
“It’s efficient,” he said.
“It’s illegal,” you argued.
You half-expected him to go on a disquisition regarding the effectiveness of folding books, but the following response you received left you inexplicably stunned.
“Cute.”
You instantly stilled.
You lifted your gaze to Dan Heng beside you, and sure enough, his teal eyes were still glued to the texts of the same page for nearly a minute now. Not a single trace of his lips parting open. He appeared serene as usual, unreadable and quiet, totally incapable of saying “cute.”
But you heard it. It was the same familiar sound of his voice: calm, soft, and… fond?
You stared at him for a beat longer. You suspected you were finally going insane, and perhaps you were, so you immediately pulled back, your eyes lingering on his face before looking away.
I must be thinking things, you thought, watching the stars outside the express’ window. Maybe Ruan Mei’s experiment has finally caught up and gave me auditory hallucinations for side effects.
You were just about to brush the odd encounter off when Dan Heng’s knee gently pressed to yours, and that same voice of his echoed softly with another shocking register.
Why were they staring…? Is there something on my face?
Then a pause.
…They smell nice. I hope they lean closer again.
You practically jerked back on your seat, startling both Dan Heng and the Trailblazer.
“Yo, [Y/n], you got a worm up your ass or something?” asked the Trailblazer, the teasing grin on their face doing little to shake you off your thoughts.
You were definitely hearing things, no doubt. And that slice of cake from Ruan Mei’s lab was the one to blame.
“[Y/n]?” Dan Heng’s voice came next, this time less resonant and more real. That snapped you back to the present.
You whipped your head toward him so fast you almost got a whiplash, his eyes looking into yours with silent concern.
“Oh, uh… I just—uh…” You swallowed. “I… remembered something important,” you said. A flimsy excuse, really.
“Huh? We didn’t leave anything behind the Space Station, did we?” Trailblazer asked, anxiety etched on their face as they began mentally recounting the details of your short trip together.
“N—no, we didn’t,” you reassured quickly, but that conviction faltered right after as you added, “I think…”
The Trailblazer suddenly grabbed a fistful of their gray hair. “Agh! It’d be such a hassle to go back and forth to the station if we did!” they whined, dragging their hands down their face like they had just been told to drink a whole cup of Miss Himeko’s coffee.
Dan Heng sighed, finally lowering his book down to his lap. “I don’t recall any of you carrying anything valuable aside from your phones,” he pointed out, memory sharp as always. “I see no need to worry about it too much.”
At those words, the Trailblazer immediately panicked. “Right! Phones! Where’s mine?!” they frantically asked, patting themself up from the chest to hips.
“…It’s right there in front of you.”
And like Dan Heng said, it is laid face down on the table before them, the glint from the overhead lights bouncing off their phone case with what could potentially be interpreted as vague mockery.
“Oh…” they whispered, blinking once then twice before scratching the back of their head awkwardly. “Hehe, thanks, Dan Heng.”
Dan Heng sighed again, his eyes briefly flicking to you. Or, more specifically, to your neck before his voice “spoke” aloud for the fourth time.
There’s dust on their neck.
Silence.
Then his gaze settled back to his book to resume reading, which now felt more performative than genuine.
Their skin looks unbearably smooth… I wonder how it’ll feel beneath my lips—
You stood up. Immediately.
You couldn’t afford nor be trusted to lounge around Dan Heng any further in the state you’re in. Not when Ruan Mei’s adulterated cake has left you hallucinating his voice. And on top of all that, you were hallucinating your most stoic companion having thoughts filled with perversion!
The Trailblazer looked up at you, confused. “Huh? Where you going?”
“Bathroom,” you responded curtly, fleeing from the scene in such a rush that anyone would’ve thought a bout of diarrhea was on the way.
You slammed the sliding door shut behind you, the sterile walls of the bathroom offering you a strange sense of relief as you were finally out of Dan Heng’s sight.
Seriously, what has gotten into me?! you silently berated, smacking your head as though that alone would help alleviate your issue.
Aeons, this is gonna drive me insane!
Lamenting your negligence of eating that cake, you ambled toward the bathroom sink to splash cold water on your face in hopes of easing the effects of whatever additives were laced into that dessert, but the moment your eyes met your reflection, you noticed dust dotting the side of your neck. Exactly how Dan Heng’s voice in your illusion had noticed.
Your jaw dropped an inch, tracing a finger over the dust in disbelief.
“No way…” you muttered under your breath. “No way!”
Damping your hands with water, you wiped the dust off clean, your mind reeling with thoughts regarding earlier.
Two conclusions were drawn: one, you had previously noticed the dust on your neck and subconsciously manifested the realization into a hallucination; or two… Dan Heng truly was speaking. In your thoughts. With those thoughts.
You dropped your head into your hands as you leaned your elbows on the sink, wondering what to do with this new discovery.
If only Ruan Mei had disclosed what the effects were, you wouldn’t be overthinking like this! But alas, there was no point agonizing over such a dilemma. You could only hope this passes in no less than a day. And hope you did.
When you returned, Dan Heng and the Trailblazer instantly perked up, though one pretended to be indifferent unlike the other.
“That was fast. You must’ve really needed the bathroom, huh?” Trailblazer quipped playfully, tilting their head.
“I did. Badly.”
Of course you did. You needed a place of respite to release all your distress.
You sat back down, except you opted to choose the armchair beside the Trailblazer. And that change of seat didn’t go unnoticed by Dan Heng.
Oblivious, you continued to ponder how to proceed with the current circumstance. You wanted to speak to them about the effects of the experiment, to ask whether they, too, were experiencing auditory hallucinations, so you reached out to nudge their arm with your knuckles.
You barely brushed your hand against them when their voice slithered into your head.
Man, I wonder when it’ll take effect, they said, staring up at the ceiling.
You blinked and then retracted your hand.
Nothing. Just silence.
Slowly, you reached out again.
Wait… what if it’s already taking effect? Their face scrunched up in introspection, eyes narrowed in forced use of their intellect.
You pulled your hand away for the second time and finally came to the realization. You can hear them. The “thoughts.” But only when you’re in contact with the desired target.
You wanted to test it out more, to confirm your speculation was on the right track, but piercing eyes prickled your senses. You glanced to the side and caught Dan Heng looking at you, starkly displeased.
He quickly averted his gaze and dropped it back to the book, as if the slight glare from earlier was mere imagination. Except the tight set of his jaw betrayed him.
“…”
You were beyond perplexed.
Was Dan Heng… really glaring at you? What for? For touching the Trailblazer? Why? Unless that was his RBF? Or perhaps you’re reading too much into it?
Numerous questions played in your mind before you even realized that the Trailblazer had caught on to your confusion, their brow raised.
“Hey, has Ruan Mei’s cake taken effect on you yet?” they asked. “I was wondering if it already did and I just didn’t notice.”
And that was the last substantiation you needed to finalize your conclusion. The whispers in your head were, in fact, thoughts. Though the Trailblazer’s assessment aligning with their previous musings could arguably be coincidental, you were already convinced. And the ones you previously heard from Dan Heng were… his.
As ridiculous as it sounds, your quiet companion veritably thinks you’re cute. That you smell nice. And that your neck… was tempting.
Oh, if the dangers from your past adventures weren’t enough to drive you insane, then you know this one will.
A/N: Yes, this will be like the Cherry Magic anime where the MC (you) gains the ability to read minds through physical contact after 30 years of virginity, except it’s just Ruan Mei lacing the cake with some kind of concoction that led to that. And except you and Dan Heng aren’t co-workers at an office, lol.
This might also have an eventual smut like the original anime, considering that was how they resolved the whole mind-reading issue, but whether I’d go into detail with the scene is still being decided…
Wherein Shang Qinghua turns thirty, goes to work, and then proceeds to misread every situation he finds himself in.
Before he can even start uttering apologies, such as: please don’t eat me, I’m just an innocent fish—I mean, man—, a harried office worker brushes past him without offering so much as an apology. And because Shang Qinghua is an unlucky, unlucky man, that light bump unbalances him enough to send him stumbling into Mobei Jun’s (sturdy) terrifying embrace.
He’s opening his mouth in preparation for the truly heinous amount of apologies he’s about to unleash when he’s suddenly reminded of what exactly has been plaguing his morning.
—has such endearing and messy hair. I could fix it for—
What the fuck.
Shang Qinghua jumps back like he’s been electrocuted and then fixes his eyes on Mobei Jun’s own. Mobei Jun’s hand is still partially raised (in an attempt to smack him???) but slowly lowers back to his side. Messy hair, who? Shang Qinghua’s the only person in this office pathetic enough to forget to brush his hair before leaving for work.
Everybody stop and consider a TGCF cherry magic au, but instead of being modern it's the cannon time-line! Its 1am so im too tired to find it but there's so much crack potential here! 800 years of mind reading virginity, please tell me someone else sees the vision!!!
I know the chances of these two fandoms overlapping are low but I wanna share a snippet from my possibly never gonna get written fic idea Cherry Magic AU
-
Shane Hollander is gay
This is a fact demonstrated by his multiple failed relationships with women.
And Shane Hollander is also a virgin, which is a notion backed by the only sexual experience he has being with his high school girlfriend, who tried to suck him off and gave up after realising he didn't get hard, which was so mortifyingly embarrassing he had never attempted another sexual encounter again.
He is also, as of today, a 30-year-old, which is to say he is a 30-year-old virgin. Oh, and since this morning, he can apparently hear people's thoughts.
tian xuning & ziyu cherry magic AU | in which ziyu gains the power of mind reading after he turns 30 due to him still being a virgin and discovers that his coworker - tian xuning - has a major crush on him.
the first time his hand accidentally grazes against tian xuning's, he sees a flash of himself on a bed and n-naked?! he jumps away and shakes his head, wondering if he was just sleep deprived and his mind was making up crazy things.
but then it happens again. and again. it seems like he keeps bumping into tian xuning - or more like, tian xuning is bumping into him? even in situations where he shouldn't be so clumsy, he just happens to bump into ziyu and even seems to ...linger against him?
each time it happens, it's always flashes of himself but he can't quite make out what is happening until one day when he joins a company dinner and sits down next to tian xuning. it's a smaller-sized restaurant and everyone's huddled together laughing and drinking, so ziyu's shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh with tian xuning. that's when the thoughts and images start pouring into ziyu more clearly and distinctly than ever.
tian xuning's thoughts are indecent, unhinged, filthy, sensual. and they're all about ziyu and himself. when ziyu realizes that tian xuning is currently daydreaming of himself and ziyu in compromising positions, he turns to look at him in shock. tian xuning, completely unaware that ziyu can read his mind, looks back at him - and noticing the fierce blush on ziyu's cheeks - his expression instantly changes into one of concern. "you're all red, are you feeling all right? do you have a fever?" is what tian xuning's lips are saying but all that ziyu can focus on is tian xuning's thoughts, "fuck, he looks so cute with his cheeks and ears all red. i want to --"
it all finally clicks in ziyu's mind - that his coworker tian xuning really wants to fuck him...
amkhi x cherry magic… someone pointed out to me that this wouldn’t work cuz jeho simply doesn’t think and that’s actually so funny to me 😭😭 so suspend ur disbelief a bit for this silly doodle
Obsessed with this AU Cherry Magic fanfiction where Adachi is blind. The writer is taking their time updating (not complaining I am also currently procrastinating updating my projects by reading theirs) so I took screenshots of every photo I could find where Eiji Akaso’s gaze is not direct and made this with Canva. I imagine that Kurosawa makes these cheesy collages every week and includes the out of focus shots that Adachi sends him. I have never made fanart before 🙈 it’s tiding me over until the new chapter comes out. Also very excited for the day someone makes fanart of one of my projects.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
