He was lounging under the milky way, after putting the TARDIS on auto, ready to go to where the chaos was.

He thought about the beautiful Movellans that was his previous companion; in and out of bed; before she so heartlessly stabbed him in his hearts and left him to die and regenerate into this new body.

Served him right for telling her in the throes of passion about his weaknesses; humans and his two hearts.

The silver lining was, at least she didn't obliterate the earth.

But hell, she was so good in bed he almost did not regret that he died in her arms.

No more companions... at least until he was really really one hundred percent sure that they were not some sort of undercover assassins, set to seduce and kill him. Again.

He knew he had his vices, and one of them was beautiful creatures , human or non human.

He really needed to get a grip on his life.

Living alone for hundreds of years seemed to do its damages lately. The loneliness crept inside of his hearts slowly, but steadily. Thus, the companions, the haste of choosing someone, anyone, to be with him. To warm his bed and his hearts, although temporarily.

At this rate of self destruction, it wouldn't be long before he really died in someone else's hands, instead of by his own choosing.

He was in the middle of contemplating life when the TARDIS alarms blared and she automatically set the destination of the next anomaly.

Earth. December 24th, 2005.

Christmas Eve.

-----

Shanghai, December 24th, 2005

23.18

Xiao Zhan was the last one out. The fucking manager left him in charge of closing and checking the store.

Every. Single. Time.

He was having the responsibility of the manager but without the pay nor the benefit, and he had to do something about it.

Not to mention that tonight was Christmas.

Thankfully he didn't have anyone or any reason to celebrate other than maybe a reason to drink that unopened bottle of champagne from his birthday two months ago. And probably cake.

But first. Basement.

He strode downstairs in a hurry, bringing his phone and bag, ready to go home once he made sure there's no one there. Sometimes the basement was used for makeout sessions between hormonal teenagers, and he couldn't have that.

To be honest, he hated the basement. It was dark and dank and it smelled of something unpleasant, he wondered why those teenagers loved it there. Beside the obvious.

He walked briskly, checking every locked door, keeping it locked, when he heard a strange noise in the farthest room, the one he never bothered to check because it was creepy, and it was the place where the used and broken mannequins were.

He stared at the door, which was an ordinary door. With a red Do Not Enter unless Personnel sign.

He gulped once. Twice. And noticed that the air seemed thicker here.

Fuck, just get over it, Xiao Zhan!

He quickly pulled open the door and scanned the area.

It was eerily still.

No movement that he could detect.

His ears were ringing with the deafening silence, and he was about to close the door when he caught a flash of blue hair from his peripheral vision.

He stopped.

The fuck?

He tilted his head to the general direction of the blue hair and he caught a sight of a... man? Boy? Standing in front of one of the armless mannequins, almost head to head with it.

He was filled with dread.

Was this another whackjob? He really needed to ask for that raise sooner than later if catching loiterers would be in another one of his job descriptions. You'd never know what state they were in.

He looked around for something to arm himself with and found a straggler plastic arm near his feet. He took it and moved closer to the person who was standing still in front of the mannequin.

As he moved closer, he could discern the shape of the said man a bit more than he did a few moments ago.

It was a man, wearing white shirt, torn jeans, white sneakers and a dark colored hoodie. His hair was blue, with a mullet, and he could see the distinctive shape of his adam's apple.

Strangely, he seemed to be... staring at the mannequin. Unmoving.

He cleared his throat loudly, trying to attract the man's attention.

"Uhm... excuse me? Sir? You're not supposed to be here at this time, hell you're not supposed to be here at all, how did you get in anyway?"

But the man blatantly ignored him, and kept staring at the unmoving mannequin.

"Hello? Sir? Do you hear me?" Xiao Zhan moved closer to the man, while wielding the plastic arm like a baseball bat.

"Shhh! Quiet!" The man shushed him, his eyes never left the mannequin.

"You know you're staring at the mannequin, right?" Xiao Zhan sighed. "You should leave. Now. Or I'll call the security."

"For fuck's sake, can you be quiet?" The man hissed loudly and he turned his head to look at Xiao Zhan, and Xiao Zhan gasped.

The man's eyes were glowing in the dark.

"Fuck fuck fuck, now look what you've done!" He took a long stride and crowded Xiao Zhan's space. "Don't look back, and hold my hand." He grabbed Xiao Zhan's free hand tightly.

Xiao Zhan widened his eyes at this man's boldness, grabbing him without his consent. How dare he!

"Do you trust me?" The man said in a low baritone voice that did something to his inside.

Trust? Are you fucking kidding me?

But of course he didn't say that out loud, only glared at the blue haired man who still held his hand with his bigger one.

"What do you mean, trust you? I don't even know you! For as long as I know, you're a serial killer and you're trying to fucking kill me!" Xiao Zhan tried to pry his hand off but the man's grasp was very tight.

"Trust me, a serial killer will be a hundred times better now." He looked at Xiao Zhan closely, squinting his eyes to look at him better. "You..."

Right at that time, Xiao Zhan caught a movement behind the man, and he shrieked, "Look out!"

Holy mother...

He gaped at the sight of literally the most beautiful human in front of him. With his face flushed, shortened breath.

Definitely pissed, he chuckled inwardly.

And just right after he sworn off companions until some unforeseeable future.

The universe really, really had its way to fuck with him.

He noticed the beautiful man's eyes widened and his shriek, "Look out!" and dodged the plastic arm from behind his head in time.

He looked straight at the man's beautiful, honey-colored eyes, and said one word,

"Run!"

He grabbed the slightly taller man's smaller hand in his, and half pulled him closer for a selfish reason on his part.

This human smelled so good.

But enough of that, with the killer mannequins behind them, they had to run .

"Where's the exit?" He asked the man, and he pointed out to the opposite corner of the room they just escaped from.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" He ran toward the exit with the beautiful man in tow, who spouted little protests, which he ignored.

They needed to get out, like now.

Thankfully they reached the end of the long hallway in no time and went out the exit in haste.

🚷

"What the hell was th..." Xiao Zhan was ready to fight for his life when the stranger, the ethereal man with blue hair, shushed him once more, and frantically searched for something nearby.

"Here, hold my screwdriver and point it at the door, quick!"

"Your what?" Xiao Zhan gaped at the strange choice of word. Screwdriver? The fuck? Was he some kind of pervert? Was that what the kids called it... nowadays? He never heard of it before in his life, and he was getting a headache.

And apparently the myriad of expressions on his face didn't escape the other man's close scrutiny.

"My sonic screwdriver, for fuck's sake! Get your mind out of the gutter!" The man put a strange looking wand on his hand.

"The hell is this? Is this some kind of prank? Did you film this somewhere?" Xiao Zhan looked around, trying to find the hidden camera nearby.

"Shut up and point it out to the door then click the button!" The man hastily searched for something nearby. "Ah-ha! Gotcha, you motherfucker shapeshifter!" He took out a plain black umbrella from the dumpster and managed to yell at it. "Did you think you can escape me that easily?" He shook the umbrella from the banana peel and sticky gunk off it.

"Uhm... did you just talk to the umbrella?" Xiao Zhan looked at the beautiful man strangely. Just another cuckoo head... He sighed.

"This is not an umbrella. And did you click on my screwdriver?" He walked closer to him, crowding his senses yet again.

"Your... uhm, yes I did click on your screwdriver. And point it at the door. Now can I go?" He tried to move away from the man.

"You're surprisingly calm for a human that was just being chased by living mannequins." The man moved one step closer.

He was a little bit taller than the man, but the man's presence was so big it dwarfed him. Not to mention his strange aura.

"I will chalk this up to a nightmare, go home and drink alcohol then go to sleep. Nice to meet you..."

"Doctor. The name's Doctor, but can call me Wang Yibo, I think it suits me well." The man, the Doctor, no, Wang Yibo, smirked. "And you're not going anywhere yet, human."

"Xiao Zhan. The name's Xiao Zhan."

"Beautiful name for a beautiful person."

He winked, then opened the umbrella, which was surprisingly big and in a good condition, then grabbed Xiao Zhan's waist.

"Now, duck!" He dragged Xiao Zhan down just a nanosecond before the blast sounded from the door.

Xiao Zhan's heart was beating a tad too fast, and he didn't have time to even scream at the explosion when he felt Wang Yibo's arm embracing him.

"Thank fuck you did your job, you arse!" Wang Yibo shrugged the debris off the umbrella.

"Did you just call me arse?" Xiao Zhan did not know if he should feel offended by the profanity of this... Wang Yibo.

"Not you, this fucking shapeshifter, who turned into a fucking umbrella, of all things! " He stood up and pulled Xiao Zhan up with him. "You okay? Not hurt anywhere?" His free hand roamed the length of Xiao Zhan's body and lingered a second too long on his perky lower back.

Xiao Zhan slapped the hand away, and Wang Yibo just chuckled.

"Mm, feisty." Wang Yibo licked his lips, and it made Xiao Zhan inadvertently look at the body part.

He gulped.

"I'm fine! Now will you let me... Ohmyfuckinggod! " He let out a loud gasp when he saw the building behind them, the department store, was no more.

It was now just a huge pile of ruin with smoke everywhere.

"What the hell did you do, Wang Yibo?"

"Moi? Nothing. It was those fucking mannequins self destruction program when they were found out by us. Destroy everything within sight."

Wang Yibo closed the umbrella, and he grabbed Xiao Zhan's wrist.

"Now tell me, why didn't you even blink at the living mannequins? Who are you? Are you some kind of assassin? Cybermen? Daleks? Although your meatsuit is too real for a Cyberman or a Dalek." He moved his thumb in circling motion on Xiao Zhan's wrist and it made Xiao Zhan feel things.

"Let go of me, you brute! I should be the one asking you about why you played with living mannequins? And what's with the screwdriver thing? Or... or... the fucking umbrella??" Xiao Zhan tried to free his wrist from the iron grip to no avail.

"Well, Xiao Zhan, since you asked so nicely about it, why don't we go and grab a drink since it will be a long long story..."

Xiao Zhan slammed the door to his apartment with a loud bang as he threw his bag on the couch.

He was heaving, and his heart rate was speeding up, so he opened the fridge, took out the champagne, and drank a big gulp from it.

He was very tempted to finish the bottle in one go, but in the end he just slammed it on the table very loudly.

The next thing he heard was a loud knock on his front door. He groaned loudly. All he wanted was just a moment of peace.

Alone.

But when he tried to ignore it, there was a familiar voice, and the persistent banging continued.

"Zhanzhan? You're home? I saw the light, can I come in, please?"

Xiao Zhan sighed and opened the door to see his friend, Peng Chuyue, barged into his apartment, panic filled his eyes.

"I just saw the news, they said that there was an explosion in the department store where you work, I tried to call you many times but you didn't answer!" He grabbed Xiao Zhan's shoulder and examined him thoroughly with his eyes. "Were you hurt?"

"Stop it, Chuyue, if I was hurt I would be in the hospital right now instead of here." He shrugged Peng Chuyue off. "I thought you were out with your girlfriend?" He was really, really not in the mood to chit-chat, even though Peng Chuyue was his oldest and dearest friend.

Peng Chuyue waved his hand and walked to the kitchen island, examining the opened champagne bottle.

"Nah, we broke off. She wanted us to get more serious and I-I don't think I can give her that." He took the champagne bottle and drank straight from it.

"Were you guys together for over a year now? I think it's logical she wanted some kind of reassurance from you." Xiao Zhan took off his shirt, ready to take a shower to wash out the debris from his body.

Peng Chuyue looked at him while swallowing hard.

"Zhanzhan... I- uhm, can we talk?"

"Hmm, can we do it tomorrow? I'm kinda exhausted today." He just really really wanted to sleep after all the running he did just now.

"Please? Just... ten minutes. I really need to say it to you. Right now." Peng Chuyue was fidgeting like a cat on a hot brick, and Xiao Zhan already got the gist of what his friend was about to say to him.

He sighed.

Of all the time. This has got to be the worst day in his life...

"Fine. Just... let me take a shower first. Five minutes, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks."

"Just, entertain yourself. There's snacks in the cupboard, and the remote on the couch."

Xiao Zhan entered the bathroom without waiting for the answer. He turned on the water to super hot to relax his tired muscles, while his mind went into a certain blue-haired man.

"You are definitely crazy if you think that I will go for a drink with you, you whack job." He slapped Wang Yibo's hand off his wrist and huffed.

"Can't blame a man for trying." He smirked like a gremlin, but he let go of Xiao Zhan's hand. "So, are you crazy enough to have a drink and talk with me?"

This... Wang Yibo was surely brazen enough to try again so soon, but his brashness held a certain allure to it.

Finally he gave in.

"Fine, only if you can find me by tomorrow." And he fled without looking back.

He wondered what possessed him to say that challenge to Wang Yibo. Maybe it was from the high adrenaline escaped-from-death thing that they did.

Basically running for their life could do that. Making an irrational decision.

He certainly could not find him by tomorrow... right?

He groaned out loud.

Living mannequins, explosion, crazy, beautiful man in blue hair and intoxicating smile, it's as if life decided to throw all the excitement of the lifetime in one go at him.

It still hadn't dawned on him that he was supposed to be... scared? Panic? Hysterical? After all, it was an unexplained phenomenon, the living, running and self destructing mannequins. A life altering experience.

But he didn't really feel all that.

Instead he was experiencing the out-of-the-body experience, and it was like he was looking outside in.

He just felt... empty.

For now he just felt bone-tired and exhausted. And deep down he was really really hoping that a certain attractive blue haired man could find him, if he was being true to himself.

Which he was not.

At least not now.

He was in the middle of drying his hair when he heard a loud noise and a shriek from his living room.

He threw the towel to the bed and hurried himself out, to find Peng Chuyue was sitting very still on the floor.

He moved closer to see what had happened when he saw the blood on his hand.

"Chuyue! What happened? Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself or something?" He scooted down to Peng Chuyue's level, and examined his hand. Thankfully he had already worn pants, although still no shirt.

Peng Chuyue looked at him oddly, then at his own hand, then he smiled.

Xiao Zhan felt a cold shiver on the back of his neck, and instinctively moved backward. Peng Chuyue was smiling, but there's something about his smile that gave him an eerily odd feeling.

Peng Chuyue stood up, wiped his bloody hand on his pants, and walked closer to Xiao Zhan.

Every fibre of Xiao Zhan's being was screaming at him to get away from this... this strange man, unfortunately his feet refused to move. And when he gained his awareness, Peng Chuyue was already in front of him, and the next thing he knew, he was being choked so hard he couldn't breathe.

"Ff-fuck... Ch-chuyue... wh-what're you... d-doing??"

He tried with all his might to pry off the hand that closed off his oxygen supply, but Peng Chuyue seemed to suddenly possess an extraordinary strength, and he realized that his consciousness was quickly getting away from him, and suddenly everything went black.

Then, he heard a faint gurgling sound, and as sudden as it started, the pressure on his throat was gone, and he heard someone talking.

"Hello there, sweetie..." the baritone voice chuckled. "We've got to stop meeting like this."

Wang Yibo! But how...

He tried to open his eyes but Wang Yibo swept him off his feet, took him to his bedroom, and put him on his bed.

"You might want to stay here while I... check the place... for more threats. On second thought. Screw that. Stay here, and don't go anywhere before I come back."

Wang Yibo's assertive tone did something to assault his inside, but fuck him if he thought he could tell Xiao Zhan of what to do.

He sat down for a while, willing the pain and the sore throat to go away, and he took a glass of water from the bedside table to drink it. He tried to clear his throat by coughing a few times, then he stood up. Wobbly at first, but he persisted.

Then he opened the door.

He walked out of his room... to find nothing.

No Wang Yibo, no Peng Chuyue, no one.

He looked at the clock, to find only fifteen minutes had passed since Wang Yibo threw him into his own room.

What could happen in fifteen minutes?

He walked slowly, cautiously, to the part of the living room where Peng Chuyue... strangled him, and expected to see him unconscious, or asleep or whatever.

Instead, he saw a large dark stain on the carpet, which suspiciously had the same color as... dried blood.

He moved closer and touched the stain, only to find it still half wet, and his heart was pounding.

Did something happen to Chuyue?

"For fuck's sake, Xiao Zhan, I told you to stay inside until I come for you!"

Xiao Zhan was yanked out from the living room area and into Wang Yibo's embrace.

"And why should I do that?" Xiao Zhan pushed Wang Yibo away, "I'm not a fucking pushover, you brat! And where's my friend?"

"Who?"

"My friend! The one who was... choking me earlier!"

"Oh? That was your friend? Hmm, I need to do some research on how humans interact on this present earth... Do all of the humans do... that? Choking their friends when they meet each other?"

"I've no idea if you're being a sarcastic ass, but... no." Xiao Zhan sighed and sat on the couch. His knees shook from remembering what had happened just now. "We've been friends since childhood, and never, I mean never once Chuyue meant to hurt me in any way. I wonder what made him do that."

"Mm..." Wang Yibo looked at Xiao Zhan while munching on the leftover snack on the table.

Xiao Zhan looked at Wang Yibo, irritated.

"By the way, how did you find me? Did you follow me?"

"Would you believe it if I say no?"

"Then, how?"

Wang Yibo continued chewing the crackers for another minute, before he stood up and shook off the remnant of the crumbs off his jeans.

"I guess, since we've known each other for..." he looked at his watch, "exactly three hours in another thirteen seconds, I will tell... no, show you."

"Show me wh-"

Xiao Zhan's words were cut by the high pitched whistling that came out from Wang Yibo's mouth after he put his index finger and thumb inside, just like when you called for a dog.

"For fuck's sake, can you at least give me a warning??" Xiao Zhan massaged his left ear, which was the closest to Yibo, when he heard the strange thrumming noise.

It was faint at first, but it got louder and louder and his living room was glowing so bright he covered his eyes.

When he reopened his eyes, he was startled to find there's a strange new object right in the middle of his living room.

"What the fuck is this? A fucking telephone booth ? How did you get it in here? Wang Yibo!"

"Relax, Xiao Zhan, please, do come inside and I will explain everything to you."

Xiao Zhan gave Wang Yibo a long and incredulous look on top of the frowning face he made.

"If you think that I will consciously, with my own free will, enter the tiny phone booth with you, no matter how cute you are, you must be freaking insane."

"Oh? So you think I'm cute?" The gremlin had the gall to smirk at him.

"But you see, Xiao Zhan, this is not an ordinary phone booth, this..." he snapped his fingers and the door was opened by itself, "... is my TARDIS." Wang Yibo winked at him.

Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes.

"Come on, where's your adventurous spirit?"

"It went out of the window after you blew the building last night."

"I told you it wasn't my fault, but hey, what do you know," Wang Yibo shrugged, "besides, you might find your friend inside."

Xiao Zhan snapped his head and he marched inside the phone booth, and he dropped his jaw by the sight of the... inside.

"It's..."

"...bigger on the inside, right? Right? What did I tell you, Xiao Zhan?" Wang Yibo had the biggest smile on his face, like a kid who was just showing off his most prized possession to his crush.

"I was gonna say that it looked like the room of a fifteen years old boy, but hey, whatever floats your boat."

Wang Yibo smacked Xiao Zhan's arm, and he smacked back. They did that for another minute before Xiao Zhan finally relented, and asked him the question.

"So, Wang Yibo, where's my friend? Did you hide him here?"

"Uhm, about that..."

"What? Did you just lie to me to get me into your room? Scratch that, that sounds so wrong, but you know what I mean!"

"Well, you see, Xiao Zhan, you asked me if I followed you..."

"And you said no."

"And I said no, but here's the thing, remember the living mannequins? The exploding living mannequins?"

"Like I was going to forget it in this lifetime."

"Yeah, right, so, one of the hands followed you home, and all I did was track it. The hand."

The mannequin's hand. The one he picked up from the floor as a makeshift weapon.

"Right, right, I remember the hand, I did pick it up, but I think I threw it off afterwards?"

"No, it sneaked into your bag. That's why I was able to follow you home. Although I did not know that it was you that it followed."

"And how did you do that? Follow the hand, I mean?"

"With this." Wang Yibo whipped out his strange wand like device out of his pants. "My sonic screwdriver." Then he pointed it at Xiao Zhan and it beeped in a rhythmic sound.

"Hmm, you have the reading of a normal human. Not that I doubt you, but with your attitude toward... all these? I have to be sure."

"What did you just do to me?" Xiao Zhan frowned at the mumbling that Wang Yibo did just now.

"Nothing, just making sure that you're okay." He put the screwdriver inside his pocket. "Now, I hate to break the news to you, but... your friend is no more."

There's a beat of silence where Xiao Zhan tried to process what Wang Yibo had just said to him, only the faint sound of humming noise surrounding them.

"What did you just say?"

"I said, your friend is no more." Wang Yibo pointed at the couch near the wall. "You might want to sit for this."

"No, please, just, tell me what happened." Xiao Zhan had this uncomfortable feeling, creeping up his spine. He knew in his head that something must have happened to Peng Chuyue. Something not good.

"Remember the hand? Well, it was an Auton."

"Auton?" The words that were coming out from Wang Yibo's mouth became more and more alien to Xiao Zhan. He didn't even know half of the words he said.

"It was an ordinary plastic dummy, but it was animated by, let's just call it, non-terrestrial being."

"You mean like an alien?"

"Exactly like an alien. This one was called Nestene Consciousness, a gestalt intelligence that first arrived on earth inside hollow plastic meteorites, and I was just about to find where it was located, when you caught me back at the warehouse."

"What's it got to do with Chuyue? My friend?"

There was a pained expression on Wang Yibo's face, but he quickly hid it, and he spoke in a flat tone.

"See, when your friend touched the hand, it felt threatened, and it... fused into your friend. It took over your friend's body and consciousness and that's why your friend tried to kill you. Not that he was your friend anymore. I'm sorry to say that he's... no more."

It took another minute to process what Wang Yibo had said to him.

"He's dead isn't he." Xiao Zhan suddenly felt cold all over and his knees gave out under him.

Wang Yibo helped him up but he averted Xiao Zhan's gaze. He really did not want to see those beautiful eyes filled with pain.

"Did you kill him?" Xiao Zhan's voice was croaked now, unable to hold back his grief.

"I tried to make him let go of you, but he was already dead and the Auton would not stop choking you. So I have to."

Xiao Zhan was quiet for a while, then he looked at Wang Yibo.

"How did you kill him?"

Now it was Wang Yibo's turn to squirm. He never once had to explain to anyone about any method he did when he took care of anomalies.

This was the first time.

"I... separated the signal receiver from the body."

"And where was the signal receiver located?"

Now he felt like a kindergarten kid being scolded by the super hot, super beautiful teacher, and he got a tingly feeling in his nether region.

He slapped himself inwardly for being horny for all the wrong reasons.

"It's in the brain."

"So, you tell me that you... beheaded Peng Chuyue?"

Wang Yibo pouted.

"So what if I did? I don't want anyone to be hurt. Especially not you." He crossed his hands in front of his chest and huffed and puffed like a petulant child.

"Was there any way to save him, Wang Yibo? Or you're just justifying yourself for killing innocent people? Don't you regard people's life at all? Is this what you call..."

But Xiao Zhan's word was cut short because there was a deafening sound of klaxon blaring all around them.

"What the hell was that?!" Xiao Zhan had to yell for his voice to be heard by Wang Yibo.

Wang Yibo smirked, and clapped his hands twice, and the alarm stopped.

"That..." he walked to the middle of the room, where a futuristic looking console stood tall from the bottom to the top of the room, "... is your chance to get your revenge." He looked straight at Xiao Zhan, and offered his hand.

"What do you say?"

"Hell, yeah."

"Underneath Shanghai Tower? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"The downmost level, according to her." Wang Yibo pushed and pulled all the different levers and buttons in a sequence that only he knew. "The Nestene Consciousness loved dark and dank places, just like your store's basement, plus to broadcast its signal, it needed a tall enough transmitter, and Shanghai Tower is the tallest building here."

"Who's she? TARDIS? What's TARDIS anyway?" Xiao Zhan touched one of the buttons and was getting a slap from Wang Yibo.

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, don't touch her! She'll be pissed when somebody other than me touched her."

"Ooh, a time machine with a jealous streak, how fitting..."

"Well, yeah, you don't want to be here if she's throwing tantrums, that's for sure."

Despite the ridiculousness of the statement, Xiao Zhan chuckled. Strange, how quickly at ease he was with this whole situation and the quirky stranger with the blue hair. Even though he killed his friend, with the most absurd reason he had ever heard. But deep down he knew that this stranger was not lying, especially after he saw first hand that the mannequins did indeed alive .

Besides, Wang Yibo saved his life. That's the fact.

Truth to be told, for as long as he could remember, he never felt any strong emotion toward anything in his life. His parents were so proud of him, and said that he was a very matured child, when in fact he wanted to just go out and play and did stupid things, fell in love recklessly like Peng Chuyue, who fell in love every other week and got into trouble for the other one.

But he couldn't. He just didn't have a capacity to feel , to want.

It was like there's something missing in his soul.

Until he met Wang Yibo.

This blue haired stranger barged into his life with his bigger-than-life attitude, and it left a deep impression in him.

He wanted to be with him, he realized. To... accompany him anywhere he wanted. To feel that burst of electricity every time he touched him. To nurture the pull of the heartstring he inevitably felt every time Wang Yibo looked at him with his beautiful honey-colored eyes.

Right about that time, the large seventy inch TV on the wall suddenly turned on, and there's a newscaster that stood outside in the busy street, surrounded by... mannequins.

"Breaking news! There were suddenly swarms of mannequins appearing overnight all over the city. The question is, is this some kind of a prank? If so, what's their intention? We'll be back with more updates later. Stay tuned!"

Wang Yibo glanced at the TV and looked at Xiao Zhan.

"This means we have no time to waste. They're ready to strike at any time, soon."

They arrived at the base of Shanghai Tower very soon after that, but before they got out of the TARDIS, Wang Yibo held Xiao Zhan's wrist, preventing him from walking outside.

"Xiao Zhan, I want to ask you something, before... before we deal with those aliens." Wang Yibo was fidgeting. "Will you... I mean if we survive all this shit, will you... go, travelling the universe with me? We could start with a drink, for starters. I like you, and hell, although I've since sworn off companions, but I couldn't help myself when I looked at you... I-"

"Yes. I'll go with you. For a drink, for dinner, anywhere you want to take me." Xiao Zhan cut his stuttering words, and enveloped Wang Yibo's hand with his smaller one, thankful that he was given this choice. "But first, we should take care of this... shit, yeah?"

The smile on Wang Yibo's face was more blinding than the sun itself, and Xiao Zhan had never felt so right in his life.

"Sure! I'll make it as quick as I can!" Wang Yibo dropped Xiao Zhan's hand to rummage through his pocket, and took out a vial with shining white liquid inside. "Take this, and if you have the chance, drop it on the Nestene Consciousness. It will cut the array of communication to his minions, and vanquish him. Just, be careful of his tentacles."

"Tentacles? Forget it, I'm not gonna ask." Xiao Zhan took the vial and securely put it inside his pocket. "What about you?"

"I got my wits and pretty face, it should be enough." He smirked but he whipped out another vial, "and of course an extra vial of everything."

He then pushed the door and offered his hand.

"Let's go, partner."

Xiao Zhan took Wang Yibo's hand with giddiness in his heart, and the first thing he saw when he stepped out of the TARDIS was a black bold writing on the wall that read Hēi láng.

Black Wolf.

He looked at the writing for one more second before Wang Yibo tugged his hand, eager to finish their job.

They walked deeper into the darkness in silence, hand in hand, until they found what they were looking for not too far from where they landed.

Wang Yibo stopped and gave Xiao Zhan a sign to be quiet and pointed his finger to the darkest part of the basement, which was one floor down.

It took some time for Xiao Zhan to adapt his eyes to the dark surrounding, but when he did, he saw a faint orange glow, which illuminated a strange huge blob with something that resembled a human face on it.

It fascinated Xiao Zhan to no end.

"Once again, beware of the tentacles, and we need to get closer to..."

Wang Yibo had not been able to finish his words because the said tentacles suddenly circled his body, restricting his movement, and snatched him away from Xiao Zhan's hold. Then swarms of mannequins appeared from all over the dark corner, surrounding them.

"What do we get here?" The low vibrating sound was echoing in their heads.

"Nesty! Howdy! Long time no see, wow, it's rhyming!" Wang Yibo chuckled, "I was just about to call you out according to Convention 15 of Shadow Proclamation, and seek an audience with you, but hey, here you are already, so what's up? I saw your dolls out there in the street, are you going to do some questionable shit like dominating the earth or something?"

"Well, hello, Doctor, I knew you're gonna find me, I sent you that beautiful gift just to let you know I'm here. Do you like it?"

"If you mean that fugly hand, yeah no thanks to you."

"That's for helping those... charlatans destroyed my planet!" The voice suddenly rose up a few notches. "Ooh, I know all about it, Doctor, how you helped those... those beasts to destroy my home, and I'm here for revenge. An eye for an eye."

"Nesty, you know I never align myself with anyone, how could you say that to me? I wasn't even there when they wiped out your planet, I was stuck somewhere in Hedron, taking care of some disastrous experiments with time, those nuts!"

"Liar! I saw you myself! Right in front of the battlefield, the first one to kill my brothers and sisters! I tried to talk to you, even begged you to spare our lives, but you were just smiling and annihilating us all!" Another tentacles shot out from the body and grabbed every part of Wang Yibo's body and started to pull him apart.

Wang Yibo looked at Xiao Zhan and Xiao Zhan understood. He moved stealthily closer to the body of the Nestene Consciousness, while Wang Yibo distracted him.

But something niggled in Wang Yibo's mind.

"Are you sure that you... met me? I mean I just got this body like a few weeks back, and the war that destroyed your planet was like... fifty years ago? And how did you get here by the way? How did you know that I was going to be here?"

"I-..." it hesitated for a hot minute before answering angrily, "why should I explain to you? All you need to know is, I will destroy your beloved human's planet, just like you destroyed mine!"

"So this is a suicide mission? With that many Autons, you will also be destroyed, did you know that? Or that was your plan all along?" Wang Yibo looked for Xiao Zhan inconspicuously and found him lurking closer to Nestene's body.

"No! Yes! I don't know! I don't care! I'm the only one alive, and do you know how lonely I am?" There was a hint of tears in its voice, and it made Wang Yibo lower his own voice.

"Would you believe if I say I know how you feel? You do know about my story, right? And would you believe if I say, I saved a few of your kind after the war, and I took them somewhere safe?"

Wang Yibo heard the Nestene emit a low gasp and loosened his tentacles.

"I can bring you to them, if you like."

The Nestene was quiet for a moment, then it tightened its tentacles.

"Liar! Once a liar, always a liar! Besides, he already said that you will pull this act of trying to gain my trust then kill me, just like what you did to my family a long time ago!"

"Nesty..."

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up! I'm going to destroy everything you've ever loved, and... what's this?"

There was a hissing sound, then the Nestene was shrinking.

Wang Yibo looked around to find Xiao Zhan near the lower part and held his empty vial to show it to Wang Yibo.

"What did you do to me, you bastard?" The Nestene screamed and flailed his tentacles everywhere, but he was still shrinking at a frightening speed, letting Wang Yibo out of its shrinking tentacles, until it was just a tiny blob on the ground.

"That was... interesting." Xiao Zhan looked at the tiny blob while Wang Yibo took out a glass container and put the blob inside. "What are you going to do to it?"

"I'm going to send it to its family. After I take you to the most beautiful planet in this galaxy, of course, that's if you're still willing to go with me..."

Xiao Zhan gave Wang Yibo the most beautiful smile that Wang Yibo had ever seen in humans or aliens alike, and it made his twin hearts beating faster.

"I would love to... but..." Xiao Zhan looked so sad, and he moved closer to Wang Yibo to touch his face lightly.

"But...?" Wang Yibo was feeling very disappointed, when he saw that first tiny spark of white fairy light, and the next, and the next, surrounding Xiao Zhan like a halo.

"Unfortunately, this is where my journey ends, Wang Yibo." The lights were getting brighter and brighter until Xiao Zhan looked like an angel with all the lights around him. "I'm so very, very sorry I have to leave you like this, but you will understand soon enough... my love." Xiao Zhan smiled at Wang Yibo's confused face. "This is how my story ends. But there will be more, you just have to find it."

"No, no, why did you say that? Xiao Zhan, where are you going? You said you want to have a drink with me, you said you want to go travelling the universe with me, you promised!" There was a stab of a sudden emptiness in Wang Yibo's heart that he never knew was there all along, until he met Xiao Zhan. And surely enough he had to leave, like everything good in his life.

Wang Yibo still tried to grasp the last of the light that engulfed Xiao Zhan, a desperate attempt to hold on to him, when finally he saw that it was futile, since Xiao Zhan had became transparent, and with the last blinding smile, he dispersed into a million white fairy lights.

Wang Yibo dropped down on the floor, the glass container slipped out of his hand but he didn't care. He didn't care about shit anymore.

Just when he started to feel alive again, the reason was taken away from him...

He was sitting on the floor, trying to feel some kind of emotion, when he saw from the corner of his eyes, some kind of bird shaped paper flying down slowly from where Xiao Zhan was gone.

He grabbed it.

It was a paper crane.

Wang Yibo frowned, and when he looked closer, he saw that there were writings on it.

He hurriedly opened the folded origami paper, and read the writings, only to find that it was his and Xiao Zhan's adventure, written in detail, and in beautiful handwriting.

His hand was shaken, and his eyes were blurred from the tears.

What was this? Was this some kind of a sick joke?

But in the end, he dejectedly took the glass container and walked back to TARDIS, not knowing what else to do.

He put the piece of paper in its original crane shape, and put it in a box near the TARDIS console.

Who are you, Xiao Zhan? And what did you mean by there were more, and all I needed was to find it?

Unfortunately there were more questions than answers, and he didn't have any idea of when or where he should start searching for it.

Just you wait, Xiao Zhan, I'm going to find you again...