11 Salty, sweet, bitter...




"You can't divorce me!
For a very strong reason!"

"Nothing can be strong enough to stop me!"

"I am pregnant, Ah-Zhan!"

"Come on ZhiXiao!
Don't give me this Ah-Zhan crap, you have never called me that!
And don't get Yibo confused!
We both know there is no way for me to have something to do with this matter!
We have never had sex, and as I'm sure that you are not the saint Mary the virgin to get pregnant without having sex, it could be only one different explanation..."

"I know!
I know!
But, please Ah-Zhan, please ZhanZhan! This unborn soul needs you, I need you!
You can't just abandon us!"

"This child was not procreated only by the mother, why don't you ask for his father's help?"

"He left me when he found out!
Besides, anyway he is not suitable to be a parent!
This kid needs a name, a father's name, he needs two parents.
Do you want him to suffer without one parent, the same as Mister Wang Yibo's son?
Please, ZhanZhan, don't divorce me!
I'm even up to allow you to keep seeing your lover, I promise to never oppose or interfere in your relationship with him. I'll not protest, no matter how much money you will spend on him! I just have one single condition, though.
Make it secretly.
Don't get me wrong, it's not about me, but I just wouldn't want for my child to learn at some point in the future that he had an adulterous father! A homosexual adulterous father on top if that!"

"Lin ZhiXiao, that's enough!
Wang Yibo is not a whore to me! And he is not my toyboy as you are shamelessly implying!
He is my soulmate, he is my family, and I want for him to be my legal family, not my adulterous affair!"

Yibo, who was silent until then, had snapped out from his previous shock and after gathering the broken pieces of his heart, he put a blank mask on his face and managed to speak:
"Zhan Ge, please listen to me!
Missis Lin ZhiXiao is right!
The world doesn't need another child just half protected by parental love, because of our selfish reasons.
And I don't want for me to be the reason for another child to be the same as my A-Yuan is, a child with only one parent!
You must do this!
She's your wife, and that kid will be born inside your legal family, will be your child, you can't run away from your responsibility!"



"Baobei, my love, please!
What on earth are you trying to say there?!"

"ZhanZhan, my love, I love you and I will never stop loving you...but you have to go home to your family!", Yibo spoke in a broken voice, biting his lower lip between words, in an attempt to stop the tears, already filling his red eyes.

Xiao Zhan threw himself onto his knees before the man set on the couch and hugged tightly his legs:
"Please, Baobei, please don't do this!
Don't chase me away!
I can't live without you!
Not anymore, it's too late, I've already fallen for you too deep!
I will give her anything she wants: my name, my Company shares, my money, anything and everything!
But I can't give her my heart, it already belongs to you!
I love you, I will never give up on you!"



"I love you, too...But, you said it yourself, I'm not a whore who would be alright with being in a relationship with a married man.
A future parent.
A man with a wife and a child, for god's sake!
No, you must go home, Xiao Zhan!", Yibo broke into tears, even if he tried very hard to refrain himself.



Tears were flowing, like fountains, down their cheeks, while Yibo was struggling to unclench Zhan's fingers that were desperately gripping the fabric of his pajama pants.

"No, no, no, please, no!", Zhan begged, but the love of his life was just avoiding his eyes and kept pushing away his hands.



"At least give me one last day with you!", he implored, kissing frantically Yibo's knees and hands.

"Alright, one more day to be. I'm not a heartless aSshole to throw you out of the house, in the middle of the night.
Let's go now, and try to have some rest, tomorrow we'll spend our last day together, then promise me that you'll go home to your family, after that.", Yibo smiled bitterly between sobs , wiping the other's wet cheeks with shaking thumbs.

Xiao Zhan lifted him in his arms and while carrying him towards the bedroom, he squeezed him tightly against his chest, trying somehow to collect a piece from the warmness of the body which he'll be no more able to hug, starting with tomorrow evening.

They had totally forgotten about Lin ZhiXiao, anyway she walked out the apartment a long time ago.
She didn't enjoy witnessing the drama! A drama that was sparked by herself, nevertheless.
But what could she do about it?
Yes, the strong love that she had just witnessed snapped a string in her heart, yes she was feeling guilty...but she wants love, too!
And this child would be the so-waited and so-desired chance for love to be brought into her life, too.
This child will genuinely love her and will be happy to be loved by her!






Neither of the two men could sleep the whole night.
They didn't want to waste the precious time left for them, on sleeping.
They had just silently cried a lot and hugged into one single cocoon of sadness and pain.




They stayed like that all night long, moving only their hands over each other's faces, trying to store in their fingertips every single feature, like in a memory stick.

Their kisses were parts of a broad range of flavors: salty, from their mingled tears; sweet, from the immense love transmitted by their pained hearts; bitter, from the awareness that these kisses will be their last.


The time had never leaked in such a speedy tempo as on that day.


The deadline of the monstrous evening was getting closer and closer, in huge steps.


"I can understand now how a death convict must feel before his final breath.", one of them said, speaking off what they were both feeling.


The day started with what they were usually doing in any other common day: they took their breakfast together, played with A-Yuan, who was very confused at Mister Friend's frequent kisses and tight hugs.
And after that they went to the hospital.


Xiao Zhan will never forget each precious moment of that last day.
Especially their last breakfast.


It was not any strength left to hold their tears from flowing, after a whole night of crying.
Not to him, nor to Yibo.

A-Yuan had already given up on asking questions, because all he was getting was a bone crushing hug.
The little child had just offered silently to each of the two teary men, a teaspoon from his milk cereals.
But he only managed to make them cry even harder at the cereals from the teaspoon of milk, assembled in a smiley face.








While the orthopedist doctor was removing Yibo's stitches, Zhan went out to buy a walking stick.

He was snapped out from his dark thoughts by the cell phone's buzz:
"HanHan, thank god that you called me, I was just about to look for you!"

"I have something important to tell you, I'm waiting for you!"

"Please God, make Lu Han give me good news!", Xiao Zhan prayed in his thoughts.


After coming back to the hospital, he hurried to Lu Han's cabinet with a spark of hope in his bleeding heart:
"Please HanHan, I badly need some good news!"

"I have two bad and one good news."

"Tell me first the good one, hurry up!"

"I don't know if it sounds good enough to you: you will be spared from a surgical intervention, because... And here comes the two bad news: you are not compatible with the kid, and the second is that if the child will not get the transplant in around three months, his liver might collapse any moment!"

Xiao Zhan grabbed his friend by his collar and started shaking him like a crazy man:
"This is good news to you?! God dammit, are you in the mood to joke around?!
What are you trying to tell me, that he will die in three months?!"

"ZhanZhan, please calm down, neither I, nor you can do nothing about it.
This kid is nothing different from the many dramatic cases, subscribed to a long waiting list, as heartless as this sounds.
Eventually, you can only help him, by going to your church or temple and praying to the Gods for him."

"Why should any of the Gods do such a crime, to take such an innocent life?!"

"Xiao Zhan, don't give up on your faith, go and pray!
You always used to say that we must have faith because nothing is happening without a purpose!"





The evening has arrived in the light speed.


It was already past midnight, and Xiao Zhan was already gone for hours, but Wang Yibo was still lying on the floor, in the fetal position, his body strongly shaking from the hard crying convulsions.



That is how Guan XiaoTong had found him, when she got worried at the unlocked front door of her friend's apartment.


She sat down next to him, then pulled his head in her lap and started caressing his hair:
"Shhh, don't cry anymore, it will be okay. After a while, the pain will eventually go away and everything will get back to normal.
I will not say now that I've told you so, what I want to say is that you are not alone.
You can always count on me, I will forever be your loyal friend!"

Then she gave him the walking stick and brought his arms around her neck:
"Let's bring you to the bed, you need some rest. You can't afford to give up, your son needs you! And I need both of you, too.
Just hold yourself onto me."



"Thank you TongTong, you are a true friend!", Yibo managed to mumble in a croaked voice, on the verge of crying again, and hugged her.
"You're right! I must pull myself together! My sweet A-Yuan needs me!"







A/n:   Dear readers, please don't hate me too much!

Remember what Xiao Zhan and his friend Lu Han have said, to keep the faith!  

After rain, the sun is always brighter!










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

Same story with no pics/gifs inserted along the text

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





"You can't divorce me!
For a very strong reason!"

"Nothing can be strong enough to stop me!"

"I am pregnant, Ah-Zhan!"

"Come on ZhiXiao!
Don't give me this Ah-Zhan crap, you have never called me that!
And don't get Yibo confused!
We both know there is no way for me to have something to do with this matter!
We have never had sex, and as I'm sure that you are not the saint Mary the virgin to get pregnant without having sex, it could be only one different explanation..."

"I know!
I know!
But, please Ah-Zhan, please ZhanZhan! This unborn soul needs you, I need you!
You can't just abandon us!"

"This child was not procreated only by the mother, why don't you ask for his father's help?"

"He left me when he found out!
Besides, anyway he is not suitable to be a parent!
This kid needs a name, a father's name, he needs two parents.
Do you want him to suffer without one parent, the same as Mister Wang Yibo's son?
Please, ZhanZhan, don't divorce me!
I'm even up to allow you to keep seeing your lover, I promise to never oppose or interfere in your relationship with him. I'll not protest, no matter how much money you will spend on him! I just have one single condition, though.
Make it secretly.
Don't get me wrong, it's not about me, but I just wouldn't want for my child to learn at some point in the future that he had an adulterous father! A homosexual adulterous father on top if that!"

"Lin ZhiXiao, that's enough!
Wang Yibo is not a whore to me! And he is not my toyboy as you are shamelessly implying!
He is my soulmate, he is my family, and I want for him to be my legal family, not my adulterous affair!"

Yibo, who was silent until then, had snapped out from his previous shock and after gathering the broken pieces of his heart, he put a blank mask on his face and managed to speak:
"Zhan Ge, please listen to me!
Missis Lin ZhiXiao is right!
The world doesn't need another child just half protected by parental love, because of our selfish reasons.
And I don't want for me to be the reason for another child to be the same as my A-Yuan is, a child with only one parent!
You must do this!
She's your wife, and that kid will be born inside your legal family, will be your child, you can't run away from your responsibility!"


"Baobei, my love, please!
What on earth are you trying to say there?!"

"ZhanZhan, my love, I love you and I will never stop loving you...but you have to go home to your family!", Yibo spoke in a broken voice, biting his lower lip between words, in an attempt to stop the tears, already filling his red eyes.

Xiao Zhan threw himself onto his knees before the man set on the couch and hugged tightly his legs:
"Please, Baobei, please don't do this!
Don't chase me away!
I can't live without you!
Not anymore, it's too late, I've already fallen for you too deep!
I will give her anything she wants: my name, my Company shares, my money, anything and everything!
But I can't give her my heart, it already belongs to you!
I love you, I will never give up on you!"

"I love you, too...But, you said it yourself, I'm not a whore who would be alright with being in a relationship with a married man.
A future parent.
A man with a wife and a child, for god's sake!
No, you must go home, Xiao Zhan!", Yibo broke into tears, even if he tried very hard to refrain himself.


Tears were flowing, like fountains, down their cheeks, while Yibo was struggling to unclench Zhan's fingers that were desperately gripping the fabric of his pajama pants.

"No, no, no, please, no!", Zhan begged, but the love of his life was just avoiding his eyes and kept pushing away his hands.


"At least give me one last day with you!", he implored, kissing frantically Yibo's knees and hands.

"Alright, one more day to be. I'm not a heartless aSshole to throw you out of the house, in the middle of the night.
Let's go now, and try to have some rest, tomorrow we'll spend our last day together, then promise me that you'll go home to your family, after that.", Yibo smiled bitterly between sobs , wiping the other's wet cheeks with shaking thumbs.

Xiao Zhan lifted him in his arms and while carrying him towards the bedroom, he squeezed him tightly against his chest, trying somehow to collect a piece from the warmness of the body which he'll be no more able to hug, starting with tomorrow evening.

They had totally forgotten about Lin ZhiXiao, anyway she walked out the apartment a long time ago.
She didn't enjoy witnessing the drama! A drama that was sparked by herself, nevertheless.
But what could she do about it?
Yes, the strong love that she had just witnessed snapped a string in her heart, yes she was feeling guilty...but she wants love, too!
And this child would be the so-waited and so-desired chance for love to be brought into her life, too.
This child will genuinely love her and will be happy to be loved by her!



                                                                                              -000-




Neither of the two men could sleep the whole night.
They didn't want to waste the precious time left for them, on sleeping.
They had just silently cried a lot and hugged into one single cocoon of sadness and pain.

They stayed like that all night long, moving only their hands over each other's faces, trying to store in their fingertips every single feature, like in a memory stick.

Their kisses were parts of a broad range of flavors: salty, from their mingled tears; sweet, from the immense love transmitted by their pained hearts; bitter, from the awareness that these kisses will be their last.



The time had never leaked in such a speedy tempo as on that day.


The deadline of the monstrous evening was getting closer and closer, in huge steps.


"I can understand now how a death convict must feel before his final breath.", one of them said, speaking off what they were both feeling.


The day started with what they were usually doing in any other common day: they took their breakfast together, played with A-Yuan, who was very confused at Mister Friend's frequent kisses and tight hugs.
And after that they went to the hospital.


Xiao Zhan will never forget each precious moment of that last day.
Especially their last breakfast.


It was not any strength left to hold their tears from flowing, after a whole night of crying.
Not to him, nor to Yibo.

A-Yuan had already given up on asking questions, because all he was getting was a bone crushing hug.
The little child had just offered silently to each of the two teary men, a teaspoon from his milk cereals.
But he only managed to make them cry even harder at the cereals from the teaspoon of milk, assembled in a smiley face.



                                                                                                 -000-



While the orthopedist doctor was removing Yibo's stitches, Zhan went out to buy a walking stick.

He was snapped out from his dark thoughts by the cell phone's buzz:
"HanHan, thank god that you called me, I was just about to look for you!"

"I have something important to tell you, I'm waiting for you!"

"Please God, make Lu Han give me good news!", Xiao Zhan prayed in his thoughts.


After coming back to the hospital, he hurried to Lu Han's cabinet with a spark of hope in his bleeding heart:
"Please HanHan, I badly need some good news!"

"I have two bad and one good news."

"Tell me first the good one, hurry up!"

"I don't know if it sounds good enough to you: you will be spared from a surgical intervention, because... And here comes the two bad news: you are not compatible with the kid, and the second is that if the child will not get the transplant in around three months, his liver might collapse any moment!"

Xiao Zhan grabbed his friend by his collar and started shaking him like a crazy man:
"This is good news to you?! God dammit, are you in the mood to joke around?!
What are you trying to tell me, that he will die in three months?!"

"ZhanZhan, please calm down, neither I, nor you can do nothing about it.
This kid is nothing different from the many dramatic cases, subscribed to a long waiting list, as heartless as this sounds.
Eventually, you can only help him, by going to your church or temple and praying to the Gods for him."

"Why should any of the Gods do such a crime, to take such an innocent life?!"

"Xiao Zhan, don't give up on your faith, go and pray!
You always used to say that we must have faith because nothing is happening without a purpose!"




                                                                                               -000-



The evening has arrived in the light speed.


It was already past midnight, and Xiao Zhan was already gone for hours, but Wang Yibo was still lying on the floor, in the fetal position, his body strongly shaking from the hard crying convulsions.



That is how Guan XiaoTong had found him, when she got worried at the unlocked front door of her friend's apartment.


She sat down next to him, then pulled his head in her lap and started caressing his hair:
"Shhh, don't cry anymore, it will be okay. After a while, the pain will eventually go away and everything will get back to normal.
I will not say now that I've told you so, what I want to say is that you are not alone.
You can always count on me, I will forever be your loyal friend!"

Then she gave him the walking stick and brought his arms around her neck:
"Let's bring you to the bed, you need some rest. You can't afford to give up, your son needs you! And I need both of you, too.
Just hold yourself onto me."

"Thank you TongTong, you are a true friend!", Yibo managed to mumble in a croaked voice, on the verge of crying again, and hugged her.
"You're right! I must pull myself together! My sweet A-Yuan needs me!"







A/n: Dear readers, please don't hate me too much!

Remember what Xiao Zhan and his friend Lu Han have said, to keep the faith!

After rain, the sun is always brighter!

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