Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little

“Mu’er…”

Mu Mu’er is standing outside the door all wet. He is looking at the doorbell on the wall with a vexed expression. Only when he hears Bai Yao call out to him does he look up.

His expression becomes quite sullen indeed. His mouth curls downwards, though he does not cry out. His little face, drenched in rain, appears much more pale and weak than usual.

Bai Yao looks out towards the street. Mu Mu’er is alone, Mu Yi is not here.

He ran here alone.

Before Bai Yao can react at all, Mu Mu’er already takes a few steps forward. He’s in too much of a hurry to look beneath him. He tumbles right into Bai Yao’s embrace.

“Yaoyao.” Mu Mu’er wraps his hands around Bai Yao’s waist tightly, burying his face in his chest, and snuggling. He quietly adds, “Mu’er is home.”

The boy has been drenched frozen by the storm. He is only in a single T-shirt – the one he was wearing when he left in the morning – now sticking to his body, wet.

Only when the cold hugs him tightly and the boy’s fluffy head presses on his chest is Bai Yao convinced that his little sea otter really is back.

Bai Yao’s own clothes also become a little wet. He hugs Mu Mu’er tighter, giving him reassuring pats on the head. Mu Mu’er’s soft and smooth hair is all hanging on meekly or stuck to the forehead from the rain.

Cold and shivering, he still does his best to give Bai Yao a smile, to tell him how happy he is to see him.

Bai Yao is about to speak when someone catches his attention the way a heart is captured by thorns. His body is shivering to the point of numbing.

Mu Mu’er is not even in his shoes. His feet has become dirty, with mud and leaves stuck on. The legs of his pants are also muddied.

“Yaoyao, Mu’er said Mu’er will be back tonight.” Mu Mu’er buries his head back in Bai Yao’s lap, and snuggles against Bai Yao’s clothes again, “Mu’er was late. Yes.”

After which, he quietly adds an “I’m sorry.”

Raindrops yet drip from Mu Mu’er’s body. Bai Yao runs his hand up and down his back, and then lifts him right up to carry him.

Mu Mu’er offers no resistance as he also wraps his legs around Bai Yao’s waist while holding his neck tightly, and hangs onto him.

Bai Yao holds him and enters the house, leaving a trail of water behind, that runs all the way to the stairs.

He has never felt as powerless as he is now. The person he wants to protect the most came running to him, shoeless, at four in the morning, in the rain, while he didn’t know a damned thing.

Heading upstairs, Bai Yao repeatedly strokes Mu Mu’er on the back, and ruffles his hair, while the boy remains seated obediently. Both of them are now wet, and Bai Yao is helping him shoulder the cold, holding Mu Mu’er tightly in a protective stance.

In the bathroom, Bai Yao has Mu Mu’er sit on the edge of the bathtub. He first takes his clothes off and grabs two large towels. One for him to wipe the water off, the other to wrap around his body.

He rubs Mu Mu’er on the upper arms as he asks, “are you cold?”

Mu Mu’er shakes his head slightly while looking at Bai Yao with this elated satisfaction on his face. It wouldn’t be surprising if he broke out singing the next second.

Bai Yao crouches down in front of him, holding Mu Mu’er’s leg to put it on his own kneecap. The boy’s heel really looks small and meek. He feels like he can wrap his entire hand around it; it’s quite like the claw of a little sparrow.

Bai Yao only sees the tiny scratches on Mu Mu’er’s legs after cleaning them. Fortunately, they’ve all closed up now.

It’s truly fortunate he suffered no heavier injuries walking on a gravel road for this long.

Mu Mu’er really should have come tomorrow instead of running through the rain this late at night. What if he loses his way? Or bumps his head again?

Bai Yao grits his teeth and forces himself to keep that angry ‘why did you not wear your shoes’ in his mind, asking, “does it hurt?”

Mu Mu’er shakes his head, and answers meekly while observing Bai Yao’s expression closely, “it doesn’t.”

He thinks a little bit before adding, “gege will hear if I do. Mu’er does not want him to hear, because he does not want Mu’er to go to Yaoyao.”

He should be used to hurting; he does not hurt, but instead, the person who shares the pain feels it forevermore.

Mu Mu’er has walked through dirty ground while having open wounds, so he needs some iodophor for sure. Bai Yao keeps the leg in his hand to warm up it for a moment before getting up, “Mu’er, wait for me here, ok?”

He only walks outside after Mu Mu’er nods in acknowledgement.

When Bai Yao has grabbed the first-aid kit from under the TV cabinet in the living room, however, he sees Mu Mu’er standing on his wounded feet, supporting himself with one hand leaning on the bathroom sink, looking out the door.

“Why did you stand up?!” Bai Yao, spooked, hurries over to help Mu Mu’er sit back down on the seat.

“Yaoyao left, Mu’er has to find…” Mu Mu’er says with a depressed tone that fades before he’s even finished.

Bai Yao does not say anything, but gives him reassuring pats again. He takes the iodophor from the first-aid kit and sits down, putting Mu Mu’er’s leg back on his thigh.

He does not know if the wound stings a lot, and can’t even bring himself to look up at Mu Mu’er’s eyes, in case he’d see tears forming. After the wound is addressed with a final slap of the band-aid, Bai Yao finally looks up, only to see right into Mu Mu’er’s big, beaming smile.

Mu Mu’er smiles even more seeing Bai Yao look up, and calls out gently, “Yaoyao~”

It appears Mu Mu’er decided to pull the towel up more while Bai Yao wasn’t looking, leaving only a round little head poking out of a big fluffy towel. Cute.

Mu Mu’er did not make a single grunt or yelp, only looking at Bai Yao with absolute trust.

“Mu’er, why did you run back alone?” Bai Yao tries to warm up Mu Mu’er more by rubbing his leg gently, “did your older brother not come?”

Mu Mu’er shakes his head, “gege does not know; gege did not let Mu Mu’er come find Yaoyao. Mu’er came to find Yaoyao alone.”

“Mu’er remembers the way home.” His eyes are bright with anticipation for a praise.

“Next time,…” Bai Yao begins, but drops the sentence almost immediately.

He was going to tell him not to run around in a storm, but he finds himself unable to say anything.

Will there ever be a next time?

Mu Mu’er clearly does not know how conflicted Bai Yao is, because he’s simply happy to be back by his side. He likes everything in the bathroom, and grabs Bai Yao’s bottle of citrus lemon body wash to squeeze a little bit of the cream out to rub. His hands are buried in bubbles now.

The body wash carries the scent of familiarity sorely missing from when he showered in Mu Yi’s lodgings earlier. It was a lavender smell he did not like.

He was even tearing up then, but he did not let Mu Yi see. He only left the bathroom after he has wiped his tears, but also made the decision to come back to Bai Yao by himself.

Mu Mu’er and Bai Yao has walked the way from the south of town to the restaurant more than enough times already for Mu Mu’er to remember the way.