SCI fic - Where You Hit, I Bleed Red [1391 words]
Private self defense coach Bai Yutong gets a new student.
you can boil this AU down to this
‘Oh, no’, Zhan Yao thinks, not being able to stop staring at Bai Yutong. He’s got a problem.
@mypheralside @frankisthegod I tried?
“Mh. You’ve been telling me for the last 15 minutes, I believe”, Jiang Lin says, without looking up from her phone.
“Yes, because this whole situation is ridiculous. And stupid.” Zhan Yao repeats once more, but he’s met with silence, Jiang Lin apparently completely occupied with whatever game she’s playing on her phone. Defeated, he leans back into the car seat, arms crossed in front of his chest and watches the city passing. He can’t believe he actually has to waste his free afternoon for this!
A self defense coach. As if he would need a self defense coach! He’s a university professor and sometimes consultant for different medias in the city. That’s it; nothing that would put him in immediate danger and justify this whole drama.
He wants to complain again, but Jiang Lin stops him before he can even open his mouth.
“Dr. Zhan! I know what you want to say, but the instructions are clear! We are going to this self defense class!”
Zhan Yao glares back, but soon enough goes back to staring outside the window and not talking to Jiang Lin.
They had first met at the university, when he has already been professor and the tech office needed somebody new and more competent. The tech offices and the psychology’s offices are set next to each other, resulting in them meeting somewhere in her first week. How the department managed to convince Jiang Lin to work for them, is lost on Zhan Yao, though. Seeing how much more obvious talent the young woman harbors, than needed to work for the tech department of a university. But this is not his concern, he reminds himself. Besides, he still is mad at her, for making him go through this whole thing, in the first place.
If it hasn’t been for her nagging of not letting her go alone, he would have ignored the instructions from his superior. Making them go to self defense classes! Only because there have been some attacks on the campus, and one or two questionable letters addressed towards him.
“Those are not questionable letters! Those are threatening letters!” Jiang Lin had screamed, when he first mentioned those. It ended with her urging him even more to accompany her on her visits. Jiang Lin had been to the classes, once. She had told him about the instructors – Ma Han and some Bai Yutong – and had been euphoric, to say the least.
“They are so good! But, honestly, they scare me a little.” She had said, pushing up her glasses, eyes wide behind the frames. Then she had pleaded him to come along – and even got backed up by his superior! Who believed it to be a good idea, considering the letters and situation on campus. Zhan Yao scowls as he recalls the conversation.
But it’s to no use mulling over it. Zhan Yao shakes his head, pushing those memories away. It doesn’t matter what he thinks appropriate or not.
He would go to the class – ONCE – and then he would politely decline, tell his superior he had tried, tell Jiang Lin she’s strong enough to pull through on her own and be over with this schnaps idea. That’s what he tells himself, when the taxi finally comes to a stop in front of a building.
Above the door there’s a sign advertising the services offered inside. A lot of different fighting styles are listed as well as other classes being advertised. Zhan Yao doesn’t pay too much attention to it, being convinced, he won’t come back again, anyway.
“Jiang Lin! We are almost half an hour early!”, Zhan Yao realizes with a look on his watch.
“I wanted to be punctual”, Jiang Lin replies, climbing out of the car. “Come on, lets get in!”
He follows her reluctantly. Behind the door the enter a corridor, leading up into a waiting room. Little signs indicating several changing rooms, but Jiang Lin rushes past it and into the connected hall. Zhan Yao considers staying in the waiting room, but decides against it and follows Jiang Lin. He looks around, the walls are covered with pictures and paper cuts and… suddenly he feels a body hitting him as he walks right into Jiang Lin, who stopped in the middle of the way.
“What”, he says, looking up and past Jiang Lin and… his brain stops working.
The scene in front of him is grotesque. Not only because there are two very fit persons fighting in front of him but because those two are also two very half naked persons. The woman is dressed in shorts and sports bra and the man is also only wearing shorts, which makes admiring his well toned upper body very easy. What confuses Zhan Yao are the various stripes of colour – blue and red – on their respective bodies. He watches as the two circle one another, apparently waiting for the other one to make a move. Just now does Zhan Yao notice the knives in their hands – covered in blue and red paint. The same colour as the stripes on their bodies.
He watches in disbelief as the woman lunges forward, knife in hand, the man leans out of her way, making a step to right and she follows suit. They are flowing around another, some quick jabs left, a quick jab right. Then. The man letting himself sink to the ground, avoiding another attack, shifting the weight on his left leg and lunging forwards, arm and knife outstretched. Then it all gets too fast, Zhan Yao barely recognizes who’s attacking whom. He doesn’t dare to say who’s got the upper hand. Both of them acting too fast for him to really make out how many smudges each of them bear – representing cuts he supposes?
The sudden blaring of an alarm clock makes him shift his attention away from the two fighters. When he looks back, both have abandoned their aggressive stance, clapping each other on the back and congratulating one another. As the woman talks to the man, her head whips towards them. Her face lights up.
“Jiang Lin! You are early!”, the woman exclaims, who he now believes to be Ma Han. “And you’ve brought your friend! Good!”
Now that they stopped, Zhan Yao gets a chance to make out the smudges more clearly. He studies the colours. Most of the smudges are located on their arms. He stares at the red on the man’s arms – very toned arms, Zhan Yao notices not without feeling a weird tension building up in his gut. His eyes continue their journey. There are also some singular smudges on the man’s torso. Being prominent over the muscles, the wet paint still glistening in the light as the man moves. Zhan Yao’s mouth goes dry.
The man, who he believes to be Bai Yutong, also turns around at Ma Han’s calling. His eyes fall on Jiang Lin and then Zhan Yao. The moment his attention shifts to Zhan Yao feels like a spot light has just been put upon him, making him feel a special sort of heat rising up inside him. But he’s determined not to show. He swallows hard and returns the look, trying his best to keep his expressions emotionless. The sudden grin spreading on Bai Yutong’s face takes him by surprise, making his mask of indifference almost falter. Zhan Yao watches as Bai Yutong raises the hand with the knife, waving at them, wide smile still on his lips. Zhan Yao doesn’t wave back.
“Give us a moment to clean up, then we’ll be right with you”, Ma Han calls over and collects her stuff from the ground.
“No- no problem!” Jiang Lin squeaks. And Zhan Yao is thankful for that, for he has lost every ability to speak.
‘Oh, no’, he thinks, not being able to stop staring at Bai Yutong. He’s got a problem.
When he thought that sweaty and paint covered Bai Yutong would be a threat to his sanity, he had not even dreamed about how unprepared he is for a fresh out of the shower Bai Yutong with wet hair and a shirt so tight, it could very well not be there, for all the difference it would make.
In this moment, Zhan Yao is sure to know, what sweet torture feels like.
Chapter 1 (whole work on ao3)
if anybody cares what will haunt this poor man’s dreams that night. it looks a bit like this:
... only with shorter pants.
(credit original picture x )
