Title: Regrets
Characters: Zhou Mi, OC
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1.195
Summary: Zhou Mi has the perfect relationship with the perfect future...or so he thinks.
A/N: Wrote this over the span of a few days because this is what came to mind when I read the word for this fic. The title might seem to be unrelated to the story, but for me it completely fits together. Perhaps you will find your own regrets in this story? Some of the quotes about Mimi's legs came from one of my daughters, some of the scenes came from another one of my daughters. They're my big inspiration, always. <3
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There’s no use in building houses without proper foundation. He knows that, but he started building their house anyway. He made it huge, filled with plans and the dreadful future. He created windows, doors a roof. Isolation, insulation, water pipes, electricity,.. He filled it with love and joy and smiles so that it would be wonderful to live in. But without foundations, even such a wonderful house won’t last long.
“Yah! Zhou Mi!” She cries, kicking at him half-hearted to escape his tickle attack. He laughs, she laughs, it’s warm, it’s cosy, it’s them.
A few moments later they’re resting on the blankets. He throws an arm over her and a leg too after short consideration. She laughs, pretends to get crushed and pushes at his side. Skin to skin.
“Your legs go on forever and a mile.” she tells him and he laughs in reply, because many people have commented about his legs, but not yet in such a manner.
There’s a moment of silence before she continues: “You have too much leg for one woman to handle,” and then she breaks out into giggles. He leans in to kiss those happy sounds straight from her lips.
“Where did you go?”
“Bought a cake.. Want some?”
He smiles and nods, and soon she’s spoon-feeding him the cake like he can’t eat on his own. He smears some whipped cream on her face, she draws a smiley of chocolate coating on his cheek.
That evening she wipes it off gently right before he can wash it away. “You shouldn’t just wash off happiness, you should cherish it.” She tells him.
So the next morning he draws a smiley for her on the fogged up mirror.
She’s lying on the couch, no sign of life on her face, and he wonders if he’s looking at a wax duplicate of her. But then her eyes flutter open and he smiles gently.
“I’m not feeling too well today, so I took a day off from school.” She tells him softly. He nods in understanding and decides to stay home too to take care of her.
They spend the rest of the day around the couch. He feeds her soup and she protests that he can’ miss all his classes because of her. To that he merely stuffs more soup in her mouth and decides they’re alright without him for a day.
Soon after she’s smiling again and there’s more colour on her face. He smiles too, tells her she’s prettiest when she’s sick because she always listens to him then. A pillow fight ensues, which he wins because she’s sick and he kisses her.
The next day they’re both barely healthy enough to go to school, but they do it anyway.
The sun is bright and warm on their shoulders and back. He has an arm wrapped around her shoulders, while she’s plucking pieces off her cotton candy, stuffing them into her mouth one by one and letting them melt before swallowing.
“Give me some too.” He pleads with her, but she shakes her head decidedly. He huffs, narrowing his eyes at her. “If you don’t give me some, I’ll make you do the dishes for a whole week.” He threatens and she pretends to be shocked, sticking some cotton candy on his nose. They laugh as he takes it off and eats it.
The rest of the way home is spend with giggles and laughter while they eat the rest of the cotton candy together. He does the dishes that evening because he loves her enough to do so.
“How do you see us in ten years?” He asks her when they’re catching their breath after a huge pillow fight on one of their days off. She shrugs, rolling onto her stomach and resting her chin on her hands.
“No idea. You?” She then asks. He shrugs slightly as well before he answers.
“Somewhere in a nice house with a pretty garden I can keep flowers in. Perhaps children, if you’d want them, but we’ll see that when we get there I guess? In ten years I’d like to still have you around, though.” He smiles at her and she smiles back, but something seems to be off about her smile. Yet the next moment she pushes him over with a playful grin and they start one of their tickle wars.
“I baked cupcakes.”
“Really? What kind?”
“Jam-filled.”
The next moment she has stolen one of the small cakes from the plate he put them on and happily takes a bite.
“They’re good. You never told me you could bake?” She says, surprise edged in her expression. He grins and steals the cupcake back from her to take a bite too.
“Oh yummy. I never knew I could bake.” He agrees with her and she laughs, taking another bite from the cupcake in his hand. He pushes the thing in her face so the jam smears over her face. She shrieks and then orders him to clean it off her face, so he leans in to use his tongue for that.
Time passes similarly to how butterflies wander through a garden. There’s smiles and laughter and it’s playful and joyous. Of course there’s the occasional fight when they’ve got too much piled up stress and annoyance, but they always make up by the evening and they go to bed together with his arms wrapped around her and sometimes one of his legs as well. It’s life at its best with her and he hopes it’ll never end.
Two years later she’s packing her stuff and he watches with disbelief as she takes only what really belongs to her and nothing that has ties to the both of them. There’s questions in his eyes and he refuses to let her walk out of the bedroom door before she answers them.
“You’re a great person, Zhou Mi.” She says then. He starts to think he probably doesn’t want to hear her answers after all, but he keeps listening anyway. “We had great times together and you never failed to make me feel loved. But your plans for the future are so set, so definite. They make me feel suffocated. How can you plan ten years into the future like that when nothing is certain? How are you so sure we’ll be together forever?”
“Are you not then?” He wonders and her apologetic eyes say more than words would do.
“We have nothing in common..” She admits. “I don’t know how we were able to spend such a long time together without getting bored. I’m so adventurous, wanting to see the world, but you’re fine with staying here, getting an office job and having the house, garden, children kind of future.” She smiles with regret. “There’s no common interest for us to talk about, nothing to share. I’m sorry, Zhou Mi, and thank you for loving me for so long. Please find someone who fits better with you.”
He watches her leave the apartment and is left with all the memories of her and him. As he looks around the living room, he wishes he had seen it coming sooner.
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