Xiao Zhan discarded his precious load on the couch, inhaling deeply at the cold hand touching his feverish neck.

"I'm sorry, my hands are cold, I don't know why. Usually they are warm, I don't even need to wear gloves in the winter time, you know?", Wang Yibo got overly talkative. He was desperately trying to disguise the strong emotions induced by that jugular vein pulsing under his fingertips.   

"No need to apologize, it's natural for your hands to get cold after everything that you had gone through. There is a reason, but I'm not going to bore you with some medical gibberish.", the doctor used the same talkative tactic to hide his own emotions.

He lifted Yibo's wounded leg on the couch and placed a pillow under his foot.

"Yes, it will feel less painful this way:
Some hot milk would do good to you. I assume that you do have milk in the house, since you have a child.", he kept talking while walking to the fridge.

Xiao Zhan boiled the milk and poured it in two cups.

"I owe you big time for all that you've done for me.
Come and sit, you must be tired, already.", Yibo squirmed his leg, trying to make some room on the couch for his new friend.

"Stay still, you could damage the bandage.", Xiao Zhan scolded his patient, but with much fondness in his tone of voice.
"Here is your milk.
Hold a bit my cup, too.", he said, sitting on the couch and placing the pillow with Yibo's foot in his lap.
"Actually I am not as tired as you would think.
"I'm used to skipping nights. I used to work as an ER doctor for quite a few years before getting myself into the business field. And the night shifts had me accustomed to the lack of sleep.
But not only that. For a while I got this guilty pleasure to play video games until dawn.
And besides that, tomorrow, actually today, is Sunday, so I don't have to go to the office."

"I like to play video games, too. I used to play a lot sometimes in the past, but not anymore. I don't have too much time for that.
When I'm not working, I dedicate the rest of my time to A-Yuan, he has nobody else but me to care about him."

"Where is his mother?"

"She left us when A-Yuan was only a few months old.
My son was diagnosed with a terrible liver disease. And at that time she just couldn't handle the shocking news."

"She couldn't...but you could!
How can a mother leave her child when he needs her the most?"

"The medical tests revealed that I was not a match to A-Yuan for a liver transplant, but she was, so she ran away."

"Oh my goodness! This is awful!"

"Somehow I did understand her, she was just a very young girl and she got scared!"

"Did you miss her after she was gone?
And what about your poor baby?"

"A-Yuan is subscribed on a long waiting list for a liver transplant, and meanwhile he is permanently under treatment and restrictive dietary, starting with the day he was diagnosed.
As for his mother, my son was too little to remember her. Besides that, I gave him all the love he needed, he never felt the missing of the second parent.
About me...those first days when I learned that she would never come back, I was truly devastated.
Mostly because she was the only chance for A-Yuan's complete healing, also because being a single parent to a little sick baby was pretty complicated and hard to handle.
Also, I have never liked to be alone, unlike you.
I don't want to... Never ever, to be left by a person important to me, never ever again!", Yibo choked back his tears.

Xiao Zhan reached out to take his hand into his, trying hard to not release the tears ready to burst, and upset the other even more than his memories:
"I'm so sorry. I'm sure that God will not allow anyone to break your heart again, not anymore!
Do you still love her?"

"I was very young when I met her, I had just finished high school.
Her parents intended to force her into a marriage with an old, rich man, so she ran away from home.
I found her sleeping on a bench at a subway station, therefore I took her home.
Her father found out and accused us both for bringing shame upon his family! He accused me especially of taking advantage of his daughter.
Thus I decided to marry her to save her from her father and also from that old man who seemed like he gave some money to her family and now he was claiming back his payment.
After we got married, as time was passing by, I started to like her. She was a beautiful, cheerful girl.
I don't know if I loved her, I don't think so...but I enjoyed her company for sure.
At least I was not alone anymore...I forgot to mention that I lost both of my parents when I was sixteen..."

"Jesus, Wang Yibo!
I am simply speechless.
Where is this woman now?
Does she ever visit her son?", Xiao Zhan spoke in a weak voice, unconsciously kneading the hand he was holding.

"All I know about her is that she is in the States.
When she left, she took all of our savings and emigrated to the USA with a dancer guy from Zhou YiXuan's nightclub. You know, the guy who was hired by Mister Jin Guangyao to deliver the cast for the party entertainment.
I performed at your Company's party because YiXuan is and always was a good friend to me and he asked me to do him this favor. But also because I save money for A-Yuan's surgical intervention.
I know for sure that one day someone's liver will be suitable for transplant and he will be saved one day!
He can't die!
He won't die!"

The tormented father's eyes got blurry from the hot tears running down his cheeks.

Xiao Zhan placed the pillow with Yibo's foot on the floor and moved closer to him.
He wiped his tears with a hand, pulling him with the other, against his chest.

He planted delicate kisses on the crown of his head and his forehead:
"Of course he will not die!
Shhh, don't cry, he will live a very long and happy life!"

Wang Yibo felt so safe and good in the warm protective arms that soon he fell asleep.

After a while, when the sleeping man's breath was steady enough to get Xiao Zhan sure that he would not wake him up when handling him, he lifted his body in his arms cautiously and carried him to his bedroom.

He laid him in the bed beside his son, placed a pillow under his foot and pulled the coverlet over both of the sleeping angels.

He watched them sleeping peacefully for some long minutes, but couldn't refrain himself from kneeling so as to admire, closely, that beautiful, serene face.

"You are a beautiful, beautiful human being.
Not only inside, but outside, too...The plastic surgeon from me would have nothing to fix about you.", Xiao Zhan whispered, drawing with his pointing finger the outline of the sleeping man's face, his perfect eyebrows, eyelids, and booping delicately the tip of his adorable nose.
He should have left, right then, but instead he cupped into his palm those round, warm fluffy cheeks that he was dying to peck or at least to pinch...
Didn't figure out how or when, but his thumb was now sliding over the velvety surface of those alluring, outstanding lips.

The asleep man sighed, sticking out the tip of his pink tongue and licked the tickled lips, first the upper lip, then the plump, meaty bottom lip, making them shiny and extremely appetizing.

That was it!

Xiao Zhan is just a common human being!
He is not a superman!
He has his own endurance limits!

"Wang Yibo, are you sleeping?", Xiao Zhan whispered. "Are you really asleep?", he whispered once again, before leaning forward like pulled by an invisible string.
His dry, thirsty lips had plastered by themselves to the other's moist ones, without his brain's permission.

He tilted his head from left to right, and back, savoring the sweetness in a slow, light but prolonged sweep:
"This is how heaven must taste!"

"Mister Friend, what are you doing to my bàba?", a pair of sleepy deer-like eyes popped up from behind Yibo's shoulder.

"Oh! Ermm, I whispered to him a little secret... But I just noticed that he is asleep and we don't want to wake him up, don't we?
I'm sorry for waking you up, I didn't want to.
Let's not wake bàba up, he is very tired.
Now go back to sleep, you, too."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!
My bàba taught me not to lie!
You didn't whisper anything, you kissed my bàba's lips!", the kid started to laugh, no matter how hard Xiao Zhan was trying to shush him.

"Why did you kiss him, because you love my bàba?
When he kisses me, always tells me that he loves me!", A-Yuan finally lowered his voice, but still grinning like a gremlin at Mister Friend.

"Yes, that's why!
I do love him!...(and my pants are indeed on fire- Xiao Zhan thought to himself, thunder-stricken with the sudden realization)...and if you let me kiss your cheeks, I'm going to tell you that I love you, too."

"Okay then, me and bàba will love you back, come and kiss me."

"Let it be our little secret, nobody will know, besides you, me and the red bunny, that I kissed your bàba, okay?
Now, sleep tight little angel!"

Xiao Zhan kissed the child's cheeks and before walking out the room, he took one more long look at the sleeping babies, imagining that they are his beautiful, beloved family.

At home, tossing in his bed, Xiao Zhan fell asleep only after long time, musing at how the last hours had changed his entire life:

He found out that he is not a hundred percent straight anymore!

He fell in love!

And

He wished for his friend to be more than a friend!

To be his family to love and protect...

To love him and to love his son.

A/n:  No comments at all again?

Well, then...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Same story with no pics/gifs inserted along the text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xiao Zhan discarded his precious load on the couch, inhaling deeply at the cold hand touching his feverish neck.

"I'm sorry, my hands are cold, I don't know why. Usually they are warm, I don't even need to wear gloves in the winter time, you know?", Wang Yibo got overly talkative. He was desperately trying to disguise the strong emotions induced by that jugular vein pulsing under his fingertips.

"No need to apologize, it's natural for your hands to get cold after everything that you had gone through. There is a reason, but I'm not going to bore you with some medical gibberish.", the doctor used the same talkative tactic to hide his own emotions.

He lifted Yibo's wounded leg on the couch and placed a pillow under his foot.

"Yes, it will feel less painful this way:
Some hot milk would do good to you. I assume that you do have milk in the house, since you have a child.", he kept talking while walking to the fridge.

Xiao Zhan boiled the milk and poured it in two cups.

"I owe you big time for all that you've done for me.
Come and sit, you must be tired, already.", Yibo squirmed his leg, trying to make some room on the couch for his new friend.

"Stay still, you could damage the bandage.", Xiao Zhan scolded his patient, but with much fondness in his tone of voice.
"Here is your milk.
Hold a bit my cup, too.", he said, sitting on the couch and placing the pillow with Yibo's foot in his lap.
"Actually I am not as tired as you would think.
"I'm used to skipping nights. I used to work as an ER doctor for quite a few years before getting myself into the business field. And the night shifts had me accustomed to the lack of sleep.
But not only that. For a while I got this guilty pleasure to play video games until dawn.
And besides that, tomorrow, actually today, is Sunday, so I don't have to go to the office."

"I like to play video games, too. I used to play a lot sometimes in the past, but not anymore. I don't have too much time for that.
When I'm not working, I dedicate the rest of my time to A-Yuan, he has nobody else but me to care about him."

"Where is his mother?"

"She left us when A-Yuan was only a few months old.
My son was diagnosed with a terrible liver disease. And at that time she just couldn't handle the shocking news."

"She couldn't...but you could!
How can a mother leave her child when he needs her the most?"

"The medical tests revealed that I was not a match to A-Yuan for a liver transplant, but she was, so she ran away."

"Oh my goodness! This is awful!"

"Somehow I did understand her, she was just a very young girl and she got scared!"

"Did you miss her after she was gone?
And what about your poor baby?"

"A-Yuan is subscribed on a long waiting list for a liver transplant, and meanwhile he is permanently under treatment and restrictive dietary, starting with the day he was diagnosed.
As for his mother, my son was too little to remember her. Besides that, I gave him all the love he needed, he never felt the missing of the second parent.
About me...those first days when I learned that she would never come back, I was truly devastated.
Mostly because she was the only chance for A-Yuan's complete healing, also because being a single parent to a little sick baby was pretty complicated and hard to handle.
Also, I have never liked to be alone, unlike you.
I don't want to... Never ever, to be left by a person important to me, never ever again!", Yibo choked back his tears.

Xiao Zhan reached out to take his hand into his, trying hard to not release the tears ready to burst, and upset the other even more than his memories:
"I'm so sorry. I'm sure that God will not allow anyone to break your heart again, not anymore!
Do you still love her?"

"I was very young when I met her, I had just finished high school.
Her parents intended to force her into a marriage with an old, rich man, so she ran away from home.
I found her sleeping on a bench at a subway station, therefore I took her home.
Her father found out and accused us both for bringing shame upon his family! He accused me especially of taking advantage of his daughter.
Thus I decided to marry her to save her from her father and also from that old man who seemed like he gave some money to her family and now he was claiming back his payment.
After we got married, as time was passing by, I started to like her. She was a beautiful, cheerful girl.
I don't know if I loved her, I don't think so...but I enjoyed her company for sure.
At least I was not alone anymore...I forgot to mention that I lost both of my parents when I was sixteen..."

"Jesus, Wang Yibo!
I am simply speechless.
Where is this woman now?
Does she ever visit her son?", Xiao Zhan spoke in a weak voice, unconsciously kneading the hand he was holding.

"All I know about her is that she is in the States.
When she left, she took all of our savings and emigrated to the USA with a dancer guy from Zhou YiXuan's nightclub. You know, the guy who was hired by Mister Jin Guangyao to deliver the cast for the party entertainment.
I performed at your Company's party because YiXuan is and always was a good friend to me and he asked me to do him this favor. But also because I save money for A-Yuan's surgical intervention.
I know for sure that one day someone's liver will be suitable for transplant and he will be saved one day!
He can't die!
He won't die!"

The tormented father's eyes got blurry from the hot tears running down his cheeks.

Xiao Zhan placed the pillow with Yibo's foot on the floor and moved closer to him.
He wiped his tears with a hand, pulling him with the other, against his chest.

He planted delicate kisses on the crown of his head and his forehead:
"Of course he will not die!
Shhh, don't cry, he will live a very long and happy life!"

Wang Yibo felt so safe and good in the warm protective arms that soon he fell asleep.

After a while, when the sleeping man's breath was steady enough to get Xiao Zhan sure that he would not wake him up when handling him, he lifted his body in his arms cautiously and carried him to his bedroom.

He laid him in the bed beside his son, placed a pillow under his foot and pulled the coverlet over both of the sleeping angels.

He watched them sleeping peacefully for some long minutes, but couldn't refrain himself from kneeling so as to admire, closely, that beautiful, serene face.

"You are a beautiful, beautiful human being.
Not only inside, but outside, too...The plastic surgeon from me would have nothing to fix about you.", Xiao Zhan whispered, drawing with his pointing finger the outline of the sleeping man's face, his perfect eyebrows, eyelids, and booping delicately the tip of his adorable nose.
He should have left, right then, but instead he cupped into his palm those round, warm fluffy cheeks that he was dying to peck or at least to pinch...
Didn't figure out how or when, but his thumb was now sliding over the velvety surface of those alluring, outstanding lips.

The asleep man sighed, sticking out the tip of his pink tongue and licked the tickled lips, first the upper lip, then the plump, meaty bottom lip, making them shiny and extremely appetizing.

That was it!

Xiao Zhan is just a common human being!
He is not a superman!
He has his own endurance limits!

"Wang Yibo, are you sleeping?", Xiao Zhan whispered. "Are you really asleep?", he whispered once again, before leaning forward like pulled by an invisible string.
His dry, thirsty lips had plastered by themselves to the other's moist ones, without his brain's permission.

He tilted his head from left to right, and back, savoring the sweetness in a slow, light but prolonged sweep:
"This is how heaven must taste!"

"Mister Friend, what are you doing to my bàba?", a pair of sleepy deer-like eyes popped up from behind Yibo's shoulder.

"Oh! Ermm, I whispered to him a little secret... But I just noticed that he is asleep and we don't want to wake him up, don't we?
I'm sorry for waking you up, I didn't want to.
Let's not wake bàba up, he is very tired.
Now go back to sleep, you, too."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!
My bàba taught me not to lie!
You didn't whisper anything, you kissed my bàba's lips!", the kid started to laugh, no matter how hard Xiao Zhan was trying to shush him.

"Why did you kiss him, because you love my bàba?
When he kisses me, always tells me that he loves me!", A-Yuan finally lowered his voice, but still grinning like a gremlin at Mister Friend.

"Yes, that's why!
I do love him!...(and my pants are indeed on fire- Xiao Zhan thought to himself, thunder-stricken with the sudden realization)...and if you let me kiss your cheeks, I'm going to tell you that I love you, too."

"Okay then, me and bàba will love you back, come and kiss me."

"Let it be our little secret, nobody will know, besides you, me and the red bunny, that I kissed your bàba, okay?
Now, sleep tight little angel!"

Xiao Zhan kissed the child's cheeks and before walking out the room, he took one more long look at the sleeping babies, imagining that they are his beautiful, beloved family.

                                                                       -000-

At home, tossing in his bed, Xiao Zhan fell asleep only after long time, musing at how the last hours had changed his entire life:

He found out that he is not a hundred percent straight anymore!

He fell in love!

And

He wished for his friend to be more than a friend!

To be his family to love and protect...

To love him and to love his son.

A/n: No comments at all again?

Well, then...