☀️

It was like seeing another layer of Nice that he tried so desperately to hide. A soft kind of look.

“I know a couple of people who would love to see it.” His laugh was like bells, light and took Lin Ling’s breath away. The way his shoulders shook, how his eyes squinted in such an adorable manner that is very uncool, but so very charming.

“As if anyone would let me be angry at a top hero,” Lin Ling couldn’t help but joke, the tension slipping from his body as Nice’s smile grew ever brighter.

“...You know, I’ve always been complimented, but never felt as good as when you said it.” Nice entwined their fingers together, “It feels very real. Thank you. Thanks for… talking to me. For not being angry at all this.”

Nice, on the other hand, was an entirely different spectrum. His results are put in the eyes of the public. One wrong move and everything in front of him could collapse in a heartbeat. What a horrible way to live, no matter how great of a life he could be living, it must be suffocating.

“And you’re a wonderful one.” Lin Ling didn’t think he was good at therapy, but he understood the meaning of what failure and stress does to a person. He had a simple job, getting things made and getting things out.

“The public loves a good hero.” Nice couldn’t grasp what Lin Ling meant. To be a hero was to be put together in every way and every aspect. What is he if not a perfect hero? A defective one?

“...I… I don’t?” It was as if the concept of not being perfect confused Nice to the point of befuddlement. As if a bad day was a death sentence.

“No.” Lin Ling squeezed their hands together, “No, no one needs to be like that 24/7. You’re a hero, not a machine.”

“You don’t have to be comfortable now.” Lin Ling said it with such finality that Nice, in the middle of opening his mouth to ask again, paused.

No matter how much he loved Moon, his goddess, Lin Ling would hate for her to cry at Nice’s dead body. He would cry too, regardless of how envious he was, Nice the Hero was a concept he loved as well.

“Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. And we don't have answers.” Lin Ling didn’t know what came over him, but the thought of someone else dying and changing the trajectory of everyone’s lives connected to Nice did not sit well with him.

He couldn’t explain why he wasn’t uncomfortable with the thought of suicidal ideation, as much as Nice couldn’t explain to him why he wanted to jump when he’s able to fly. There are things that people don’t want to tell each other, be it passing strangers or intimate friends.

“I suppose there is no difference?” Nice hummed, “Why?”

Lin Ling didn’t have an answer for that either. Un-comfortability isn’t the same for everyone, like how comfortability isn’t the same for him or Nice.

“Didn’t it make you uncomfortable?”

“I’m pretty uncomfortable now. What’s the difference?” Lin Ling didn’t know how to get down. Some suicidal hero is plastered to his side, and god he hoped that his hands didn’t sweat.

He wasn’t sure what, but Nice decided it was a good time as ever to get into his personal space.

“...And you’re not disillusioned?” Nice drew a bit closer, getting into Lin Ling’s face. His eyes weren’t as dull as before, now a beautiful shade of blue. His hands reached out to him as if to ground himself from. Something. Or because of something.

And Nice saw him at his worst too. They were even. Lin Ling didn’t need someone to fake a smile and do a little twirl in the air when they were dying inside to make him feel better. That’s like telling a starving monkey to dance.

“No you’re not?” Lin Ling understood what it meant to break down, and Nice definitely had one, “You don’t have to play it up for me. I’ve, well I saw you at your worst.”

“That was pretty unheroic of me, huh?” Nice wiped his wet cheek, huffing, “I’m fine now.”

The wobble in his voice did not constitute him as being “fine.”

“I’m sorry you had to see that.”

His tone was subdued, less ‘showboat-y' and more of a regular person. Like they were having a drink at a coffee stand and not discreetly hovering behind Nice’s billboard. Lin Ling thought he had a good voice. Velvety and soft, like a freshly washed blanket.

He wouldn’t want anyone to see him bawl his eyes out if it was him. Plus, tear tracks on your face aren't exactly hero quality, afterall. More damsel, if Lin Ling had any say in it.

——

“Are you better now?” Lin Ling coughed, unsure of how to carry the conversation further if Nice said no. He scratched the side of his cheek and valiantly tried to not stare into Nice’s eyes. To save him from embarrassment, surely.

#tobeherox #TBHX #凸变英雄X [savior-gege] Lin Ling saves a wayward hero

bsky.app/profile/luiv...

Maybe he should’ve been silent. All he did was ask what’s wrong and he had his hands full with a crying hero.

“I’m not sure.” Lin Ling blinked. Now it was his turn to look confused and slightly concerned. He might not be the smartest person, but he certainly understood that this behavior was abnormal. Nice looking like a kicked puppy was a bit entertaining, but that aura of depression is something else.

“Dumbass! Who the hell do you think you are?” He was dating Moon, was famous across the city, had a perfect life and he wanted to throw it away? An idiot! Dumbass!

Nice smile widened, and god if he wasn’t beautiful or had his face insured, Lin Ling would punch him across the jaw. His eyes sparkled, a bit lighter than before, “What did you call me?”

“I meant to do that.” Nice said it so matter-a-factly that Lin Ling wanted to be the one who killed him with his bare hands.

“No shit?” Who just goes oops I fell to my death even though I can fly, “Yeah, yeah of course dumbass?”

Until he decided to tackle down one of the most popular heroes from stepping off the building. Until he miscalculated and then both of them decided to fall off the ledge together.

Sure, Lin Ling did not expect much out of his life. Like every other person, he loved heroes- to be more precise, the idea of heroes, but he never saw himself as one. Who would think some normal, wage slave would be one?