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“A-Li,” Jin Zixuan said. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t think I can make it to date night.”
He sounded genuinely sorry. Which he always did.
Jiang Yanli let out a small sigh. She didn’t think it was loud enough for Zixuan to hear it.
“That’s okay,” she said - and it was, really. She knew he was busy. Had been since his father collapsed in the wake of that court-ordered round of paternity testing. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand his priorities.
“How… how are they doing?” she asked.
Zixuan let out an aggrieved sigh. “I don’t mean to make you worry about them too, A-Li. Things are settling down a bit at home, but there’s— Legal says I need to make a decision about this before Monday, and I need to be on site for that.”
She had spent most of her free evenings this month preparing for their anniversary dinner. They had decided that they would stay in, take it easy. Just the two of them, shoulder to shoulder in her kitchen. It was meant to take both of their minds off the strain.
She could probably send the mild recipes she came up with to A-Cheng. Hadn’t he been trying to cook for Lan Xichen recently?
“I’ll make it up to you, A-Li. I promise. As soon as I can get away. We can take a trip somewhere, or just stay in. Whatever you like.”
“We don’t have to. I understand.”
She also got this busy, when a case was nearing an important deadline, so it wasn’t— It wasn’t new. She didn’t want to be unreasonable. Only, it still hurt. Not seeing him - yes. Being brushed off was worse. But it was his own family situation, and if he didn’t want her involved in that...
“I’ll still try to make it on Sunday, A-Li,” Zixuan reassured her.
“Alright,” Jiang Yanli said.
She didn’t even know what she would want him to do differently, so it wasn’t really right for her to be mad about his behaviour. It wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t hers. It was just … bad luck.
Jiang Cheng threw open the door to Wei Wuxian’s greenhouse and stalked towards his brother.
“Wei Wuxian,” he growled.
Wei Wuxian, elbow-deep in one of his shrimp tanks, stared up at him. “What?”
“The peacock is on a business trip. This weekend.”
Wei Wuxian found himself mirroring his little brother’s expression. “What. Isn’t it their anniversary?”
“Exactly. Pack your shit, we’re going to A-Jie’s.” Jiang Cheng waved his phone. “I got tickets. Leaving at 3, back late Sunday. Your fish can live that long, right?”
“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian said. “Zidian—”
“Is with Huaisang.”
“Okay, I’ll just finish up here.” Wei Wuxian said. He gave the potatoes a mournful look - he was going to try his new growing medium mix formula on the new batch this weekend. Jiejie, though, was always more important.
Jiang Cheng managed to maintain his stormy mood all the way until they got on the train.
Wei Wuxian, sprawling into his personal space like Jiang Cheng didn’t also need the leg room, at least wasn’t chattering at him. Instead, he was fiddling with his phone. Making a sappy face at it. Probably texting with “Lan Zhan”.
Disgusting.
Jiang Cheng pulled out his own phone, connected his earphones. He didn’t know if he should even tell Lan Xichen he would be in town. They weren’t usually very spontaneous, as a couple. Plus, he probably wouldn’t have much time unless A-Jie chased them out of the house.
Ultimately, he decided on staying non-committal.
Jiang Cheng (16:17): Will be in Suzhou over the weekend, probably busy with family stuff. Coffee if we find a time?
Lan Xichen (16:19): I’d love to (´ ∀ `* ) Let me know when is good for you!
Jiang Cheng rubbed his thumb along the side of his phone. He wasn’t smiling at the message. Unlike his brother, he remembered they were in public. But he knew Xichen only used smileys when he was actually physically smiling, and that made something warm squirm around in Jiang Cheng’s belly.
Her brothers spilled into Jiang Yanli’s entryway. Wei Wuxian was hugging her before Jiang Cheng even had the door pulled all the way closed.
She patted his head gently, and smiled knowingly at Jiang Cheng’s eyeroll. “A-Cheng, A-Xian! I’m so glad to see you.”
“It’s nothing,” Jiang Cheng said. “We were free anyway.”
That was, of course, a blatant lie. Jiang Yanli decided against calling her little brother out on it. He was always so bristly when he was trying to be nice.
“Jiejie~” Wei Wuxian mumbled into her shoulder. “Let us spoil you for just one weekend, okay?”
She sighed. “This is not as big a deal as you two are making it out to be. We knew this might happen. Zixuan’s been very busy. I just have all this food spare now. It’s too much to eat on my own. So I’m glad I get to have you two over, you can help me finish it all off.”
She reached out to touch Jiang Cheng’s cheek, and he allowed it with a small smile. Honestly, an opportunity to spoil her boys was quite welcome! They would at least help her not get caught up in her own head over the weekend.
“Well, come sit down - how about you two tell me all about what’s been going on with you?”
She ushered them into her living room, got all of them some tea and snacks. Wei Wuxian immediately derailed her attempt to find out about them to ask her all about herself.
He wanted to know how work had been going (“You know I can’t talk about my clients”), if she’d cooked anything fun (she had, and she had pictures!), or gone anywhere (she didn’t have the time recently), whether her furnace was finally fixed (it was, and it had been an ordeal to make that happen).
Only when he was satisfied that she really had nothing else she wanted to tell them about herself did he relent by changing the subject.
“Oh, by the way of being warm! That reminds me! Jiang Cheng broke our jar of chilli oil, can we have a new one?”
“Since when is it our jar?” Jiang Cheng demanded. Wei Wuxian started cackling, and had to dodge a smack from Jiang Cheng. Jiang Yanli hid her smile behind her hand.
“You ate yours with a spoon and have been mooching off mine ever since! And I didn’t break it, your freak boyfriend did that when he picked up my fucking fridge!”
Jiang Yanli blinked. “A-Xian has a boyfriend?”
The boys gave her a long, wide-eyed look, then immediately stuck their heads together to snipe at each other.
“You didn’t tell A-Jie?!”
“I wanted to wait and see a little! What if he’s not serious?”
“What part of proposing to you on my couch didn’t seem serious to you?! You’ve been pining over each other since—”
“A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli said, more calmly, in an even more deliberately friendly tone, “has a fiancé?”
“Ah, Lan Zhan, this is your beloved Wei Ying~” Wei Wuxian said into Jiang Cheng’s phone (he forgot his charger), to Lan Wangji’s voicemail. He was twirling a strand of his hair around his finger. “I said I’d be busy all weekend, but it turns out I might be in Suzhou and suddenly have time for a date! Jiang Cheng told Jiejie about us, so she wants to meet you for dinner. I mean, you don’t have to if you’re busy of course. Or if you don’t want to! But—ah! I told you how she makes the best ribs, right? You were pretty protective of those ribs Jiang Cheng made, haha. There’s probably—Jiejie, are you gonna make soup? Ok, yeah. There’s gonna be ribs, which I guess are your favourite. Other than me of course. Just kidding! My Jiejie - you work with her, Jiang Yanli? Well she’s inviting you and your brother over but don’t worry about your brother, Jiang Cheng is gonna call him when I’m done here. This is not a new phone by the way, it’s just Jiang Cheng’s, don’t save the number!”
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes so hard that Wei Wuxian worried he might strain something in his face.
“Anyway of course you don’t have to come but I think it’d be really nice to see you while we’re here! And you did say, you probably don’t remember this, but you said you missed me, so you should definitely come see me while I’m in town, if you want to, Lan Zhan.”
He continued to ramble, in that fashion, until the voicemail's time limit mercifully cut him off. Then he threw the phone back to Jiang Cheng who caught it with a hissed curse, nearly fumbling it into the couch cushions.
“You realize that you’re an embarrassment to everyone who knows you, right?” Jiang Cheng snapped, once he had the phone securely in hand. He started swiping around on it. Way longer than it took to bring up a contact.
“Aren’t you going to call Lan Xichen?”
“No need, I sent him a calendar invite.” Jiang Cheng showed him the phone. He had blocked in their train ride on his calendar, and also the meals with Jiejie. Sunday’s dinner showed he was waiting for a reply from “Lan Xichen”.
Lan Wangji was saved in Wei Wuxian’s phone as “🐰Lan Zhan 😍” because he was not a weirdo who treated his boyfriend like a business contact.
“You have a shared calendar,” Wei Wuxian asked, blinking at the screen, “for dates, but I’m the embarrassment?”
Jiang Cheng shrugged. “It syncs with our work calendars. So we can tell when we both have time.”
Wei Wuxian slumped over the table. “I can’t believe my sweet baby brother who used to jump into every puddle with me grew up to be such a nerd. Jiejie, please comfort me! I have suffered a personal loss!”
Xichen called Jiang Cheng, a few minutes after getting the invite.
“Hello Xichen,” Jiang Cheng said. He gestured at Wei Wuxian to stay seated and took his phone to the guest room, closing the door firmly behind himself and sitting down on the bed. Wei Wuxian had claimed the couch to sleep on.
“Wanyin,” Xichen said. It made Jiang Cheng want to run and punch something, hearing it. But in a good way. Nobody else ever said his name like that. “About the invitation you sent...”
“It’s fine if you can’t make it. I know it’s very short notice. Fuck. Right, please finish. Sorry for interrupting.”
“Are you well?”
“Yes.”
They sat in silence for a moment. He hated talking to Xichen on the phone - it was always easier in person, when they could see each other.
“Well, I can probably make it, if you want me to.”
It took Jiang Cheng a moment to parse that. It was indirect, like so much of what Xichen said - softly diplomatic, where Jiang Cheng would— well, not ask outright. Probably yell about it incomprehensibly like the immature mess he was. Lan Xichen wasn’t fishing for a personal invitation though. He was offering to bow out. Jiang Cheng knew him well enough to put that much together.
“No,” he murmured. Cleared his throat to get his voice under control. “I mean. Yes, if you have time. I’d like you to join us.”
“I will, then,” Xichen said, like it was that simple: Jiang Cheng wanted him there, so it naturally followed that he would be.
They hadn’t really heard from each other since the terrible date at Jiang Cheng’s place, apart from a few brief texts. That was normal for them.
It wasn’t like there was anything big to talk about.
It shouldn’t be a big deal that they slept in the same bed, that Jiang Cheng remembered the feeling of Lan Xichen’s toned waist under his arm, the warmth of him all along Jiang Cheng’s front.
For two decidedly non-virginal people who had both dated extensively before starting seeing each other, they were moving at a glacial pace. Somehow, though, Jiang Cheng was stuck on it: sleeping in the same bed, Lan Xichen’s hand on his elbow, his shoulder, his waist.
He wanted one of those fucking respectful kisses, right in front of Wei Wuxian and A-Jie.
“Wanyin?”
“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. This was all Wei Wuxian’s fault for not talking to A-Jie in the first place! “I mean. This is really sudden. I don’t mean to disrupt your plans.”
“You’re not,” Xichen said. “And I wouldn’t mind, if it was to see you.”
A small noise slipped out of Jiang Cheng.
Fuck, how could he just come out and say that? Jiang Cheng ran a hand down his face.
He should reply. Wei Wuxian would come out with something ridiculous and sappy, and Jiang Chang had heard A-Jie on the phone with her peacock too - something. Sweet and sincere.
He swallowed. Licked his lips.
“Tomorrow at seven, then?”
“Yes. I’m looking forward to seeing you, Wanyin.”
“Okay,” Jiang Cheng said, and hung up.
Then he let himself fall face first into the pillow and bit down. Fuck! What was that, tomorrow at seven!
He was still lying there, biting the pillow and cursing himself, when his phone buzzed in his hand a few minutes later.
Lan Xichen (17:19): It’s a shame Zidian won’t be there. Now that we’ve become fast friends I want to see her again (＾◡＾)
Jiang Cheng (17:27): [dogsitting.jpg]
Lan Xichen (17:28): (*´▽`*) She looks so much more fluffy now that it’s cold!
They wound up cooking dinner, all three of them together, that first night - Jiang Cheng put himself in charge of the sink. Before he went to school for agriculture, Wei Wuxian thought Jiang Cheng’s entire song and dance about soaking and rinsing everything five times was paranoid. Now he silently agreed.
Wei Wuxian declared himself the sous-chef for Jiang Yanli, cutting things and taste-testing everything she declared edible.
“You’re going to spoil his appetite,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. He’d gone on to scrub the heavy cutting board Wei Wuxian had minced the fish on.
Wei Wuxian stuck out his tongue. “If it’s Jiejie’s cooking, I can eat all of it! Doesn’t matter how much.”
She got that slightly embarrassed smile that brought out her dimples, and reached her clean hand over to pat his cheek. “A-Xian!” she scolded. There was no heat in it though, so he simply bumped their shoulders companionably and stole another fish ball out of the soup.
And then, because he, Wei Wuxian, was not a traitorous rib-stealing brother, fished one out for Jiang Cheng too. He pushed the spoon against his brother’s mouth. Ok, maybe he should have warned him, there was kind of a clack and Jiang Cheng winced. But when he opened his mouth to protest, Wei Wuxian, with the ease of long practice, pushed the spoon, fishball and all, in. Worked to shut him up every time.
“You’re the worst,” Jiang Cheng said. But he said it after chewing the fish ball quite thoroughly and swallowing, and then licking his lips, so Wei Wuxian very graciously forgave him.
“This is pretty nostalgic,” Jiang Yanli said. “We should do it more often. Maybe I’ll come down there to visit you two sometime when my work lets up a little. We can cook with A-Xian’s produce!”
Jiang Cheng snorted. “Any extra mouths would help when he has a good harvest. He brought me an entire trash bag full of turnips.”
“That,” Wei Wuxian declared, with conviction, “is where turnips belong.”
“Why are you growing them if you hate them so much?!”
“I had a bet with Wen Qing!”
“Did you make anything nice with the turnips, A-Cheng?”
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes at Wei Wuxian’s gagging noises, and dutifully talked Jiejie through the absolutely inhumane quantities of turnip cakes, pickles, soup, and stew he made in the weeks after Wei Wuxian’s too-big turnip harvest.
“And you, A-Xian? Are you taking enough time off work to actually cook and eat properly?”
Wei Wuxian squirmed under Jiejie’s knowing gaze.
Jiang Cheng, who was maybe mollified by the fish ball, or maybe just not the absolute worst today, came to his rescue. “He’s over at my place whenever he pleases, and he usually mooches a meal.”
Jiejie, who spoke fluent Jiang Cheng, smiled at that. “I’m so glad you two are getting along - can you cut these for dessert, A-Xian?”
“Of course, Jiejie. Also, it’s not mooching if I bring you so many good ingredients!”
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Wei Wuxian’s crazy science lab raises the best shrimp in Wuhan and I should be glad that I, a lowly actuary, can have 5 tons of them every week when his tanks move too fast.”
Jiang Yanli laughed. “You could dry some and send them to me. I wouldn’t mind cooking with A-Xian’s shrimps!”
“I’ll bring some next time. I—” Jiang Cheng clears his throat. Wei Wuxian glared at him. They hadn’t brought anything with them, because they knew her pantry was full in preparation of the big peacock feast.
Wei Wuxian, for her sake, rescued Jiang Cheng’s blunder. “How can you give away my shrimp without asking! You don’t even know, I might have changed all the tanks over to tilapia. And then, what would you do? Promising Jiejie the best shrimp in Wuhan, only your supplier is OUT!”
“You hate tilapia.”
“Not as much as I hate turnips!”
Out of the corner of his eyes, Wei Wuxian could see Jiang Yanli was smiling again as she squeezed more fish balls into the soup. He elbowed Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng elbowed him back.
It was ok. Despite the near-miss, they were still on track.
They spent most of the following morning chatting amicably. Wei Wuxian managed to coax a few smiles out of Jiang Yanli, but Jiang Cheng could tell her heart wasn’t in it. Despite her claims to the contrary, she was obviously upset the peacock took off, and why wouldn’t she be?
Jiang Cheng would have chased him off long ago, only... She chose Jin Zixuan. That mattered, regardless of how much of a mess the rest of it was.
He cleared his throat, carefully looked at the corner of A-Jie’s coffee table, and forced himself to say: “Do you want to talk about. How things are. With him?”
Wei Wuxian froze. This was. Kind of not their plan.
It was just, Wei Wuxian fucking always wanted to talk about his “Lan Zhan”. He had wanted to in high school when he thought Lan Wangji hated him, he had wanted to in college when they barely saw each other (according to Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng thought they saw him way too much), and he wanted to now, for the two whole weeks they’d been dating.
And Jiang Cheng knew his sister’s friends had been telling her to dump Jin Zixuan, so she probably wasn’t talking to them about him.
Wei Wuxian put his arm around her shoulders. “You can if you want to. We’re here for you, you know?”
She let out a sigh. “A-Cheng. A-Xian.” Fuck, her eyes were getting misty. Jiang Cheng was going to sock Jin Zixuan for making his sister cry. “I know you don’t like him.”
Wei Wuxian was shooting Jiang Cheng a panicked look. They were not fucking qualified to handle this, but they were who she had, so they’d have to pull through.
“You like him,” Jiang Cheng said to the coffee table.
She let out a shaky breath. “I do. It’s just been difficult - I don’t know if you’ve seen it in the press.”
It was impossible not to have seen it in the press. Jin Guangshan’s face had been on a hell of a lot of front pages recently.
“He’s still trying to sort things out with his siblings. Mo Xuanyu is so young. And then his work has— Well, it’s been very busy for him. I know that. I’m not trying to make it about me. It’s not great at the moment, but there’s nothing either of us can really do.”
“He could introduce you,” Wei Wuxian blurted out. Jiang Yanli looked at him, blank confusion all over her face. “To his siblings, I mean! Lan Zhan came to Jiang Cheng’s place, and it was fine.”
For the sake of peace, Jiang Cheng did not correct this assessment. He cleared his throat.
“You’re his fiancée. If he’s introducing them to his family, you’re part of that.”
He. Didn’t generally mention the engagement out loud. Hadn’t since the first one was broken off.
Jiang Yanli touched the side of Jiang Cheng’s head. Stroked his hair. “A-Cheng.”
“And uhm,” Jiang Cheng pressed on, holding on to eye contact with the coffee table. Why wasn’t Wei Wuxian saying anything? He was the one who’s good at talking! “I was the one who invited Lan Wangji. So. Maybe you should do that. I don’t think Xichen would have asked on his own, so Jin Zixuan won’t for sure.”
Jiang Cheng continued to look at the edge of the coffee table, trying to school his face into a scowl.
“Come here.” Her arms wrapped around Jiang Cheng, and he quickly hugged her back, shooting Wei Wuxian - who was staring and being useless! - a glare over her shoulder. He didn’t do this. They didn’t do this, unless they were driven to the absolute brink.
He hugged his sister a little tighter, closed his eyes. He barely even flinched when Wei Wuxian joined the hug, his arms wrapping all the way around Jiang Cheng’s shoulders and all but smothering her between them. She let out a startled little laugh and swatted at them.
“Xianxian!”
This was so far from the worst thing they’d talked through, worked through, the three of them. It was almost laughable in comparison. It probably didn’t warrant a hug. Definitely not a group hug. But even if Jiang Cheng had wanted to let go, Wei Wuxian was still holding on to both of them anyway.
Finally, Wei Wuxian let go of them. Jiang Cheng cleared his throat and dug his tissues out of his pocket because he needed to offer one to Jiang Yanli.
“His siblings. They could probably use a break from everything that’s going on, right?” she asked.
“Actually yeah,” Wei Wuxian said. “Probably. I mean, family dinner always works, right?”
They sat for a moment, considering that in silence. It was possible that all three of them had only a single approach for resolving tension. Despite the nature of family dinners at the Jiang estate, that approach appeared to be: family dinner.
“Yeah!” Wei Wuxian agreed with himself after a moment. “And if you need backup with all those Jins, just invite us too. I’m happy to eat Jiejie's amazing food any time at all, and you always say soup tastes better if you make a bigger batch.”
“That’s because it does,” Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli replied, almost at the same time.
As the Lans’ arrival drew closer, Jiang Cheng retreated to the guest room to panic about having not brought anything to wear.
Wei Wuxian, without having to look into his backpack, knew that his choices were these jeans with yesterday’s red tee, or these jeans with today’s black tee, or these jeans with tomorrow’s red-and-black tee. Or the sweats he’d brought to sleep in. Hey! He had enough clean underwear and socks, nobody should be judging him.
So he wound up balancing on one of Jiang Yanli’s kitchen chairs while she puttered around with dinner. Even Jiang Cheng had been banished from actually participating.
But since Jiang Cheng had gone all mushy and initiated a hug instead of appropriately badmouthing the peacock, it fell to Wei Wuxian to fulfill their brotherly duty.
“It sounds like he had a good reason this time,” he said, “but if he ever hurts you again I can still feed him to my shrimp.”
“A-Xian,” she said, a little reproachfully.
“Jiejie~” he replied, in his best “I’m baby” voice. It was pretty good, if he said so himself. He puffed out his cheeks and let himself flop forward over the table. She reached over to pat him on the head. Instead of drawing back to continue her preparations, her hand lingered, gently stroking over his hair. He closed his eyes and grinned. This was nice.
“He makes you happy though, right?” he asked, a little plaintively. He hated to see her get hurt.
“Yes,” she said, slowly. “I decided long ago that he’s the one I want, and... As long as he wants me too, we can work through this.”
They were silent for a moment longer. Wei Wuxian might nod off, right there on her kitchen table. She had been completely right: spending time together just the three of them was nostalgic. And here in Suzhou, far away from Uncle Jiang and Yu Ziyuan, that nostalgia took on a certain softness.
“And about Lan Wangji,” she said, her fingers still moving gently. “He makes you happy?”
“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian said. “Yeah Jiejie, he does. I think I’ve liked him for a long time.”
Her hand stayed in his hair for a while after that, before she gave him a final pat signalling for him to get up.
He pouted a bit until she poked his cheek. Only then he sat up with a grin.
Jiejie pushed over a plate of mandarine segments, and he grinned wider and started popping them into his mouth. She’d picked a sweet one for him, juicy enough to make a mess if he wasn’t careful.
Ten seconds later, Jiejie was dabbing at his chin and fingers with a napkin, and they were both laughing.
The thing was that Lan Xichen had never, ever seen Jiang Cheng when he was unprepared. Even for their casual date at his house, he had tried on every pair of jeans in his wardrobe in combination with every sweater and semi-casual shirt he owned.
He had made a spreadsheet and shortlisted the best options to arrive at the ensemble, and then spent half an hour getting his hair right to show off his jawline and nape.
He knew that he wasn’t playing in the same league as Wei Wuxian, or the Twin Jades, or even Jin Zixuan. His mother had told him that often enough, and so had his ex (who also, Jiang Cheng thought without an ounce of charity, wasn’t in that league of idol-pretty people, but Jiang Cheng had, ironically, never been enough of a jackass to tell him that).
He knew he was distracting himself, that he looked fine, and that he was not, in fact, worried about his wardrobe.
It was the fact that they were in a meet-the-family situation. Of course, technically Xichen knew Jiang Cheng’s family better than he knew Jiang Cheng since he worked with A-Jie for years.
But.
Jiang Cheng forced himself to relax his jaw.
He had not expected a proper date with Xichen. He hadn’t even intended to see him before he sent that ill advised text. He had what he had travelled in, the spare top he was wearing now, pyjamas. Plus slacks and a nice shirt in case the heavens fell and Jiang Yanli decided she wanted to go out instead of cooking at home.
Jiang Cheng sighed. There was a second business casual-ish outfit he had brought with him. For his brother. Which Wei Wuxian had left at Jiang Cheng’s place and never picked up after he laundered and ironed it for him. His clothes didn’t fit Jiang Cheng though. Also, it would be painfully obvious, given their respective styles.
There was a knock on the door, and then it was pushed open. Because of course Wei Wuxian didn’t actually ever wait for anyone to tell him to come in.
“Hey, did you die in here?”
“Very funny,” Jiang Cheng grumbled.
“No seriously, you’ve been in here for. An hour or something.”
“Well, I’m not done.” Jiang Cheng looked down at himself.
“I can see that,” Wei Wuxian said, and grinned broadly. “Are you going for a job interview or a date?”
Jiang Cheng scowled at him. “I thought A-Jie might want to go out, but I really didn’t bring date clothes.”
Wei Wuxian flopped down next to him on the bed, right on the rest of Jiang Cheng’s clothes which he’d still been evaluating. Wrinkling them. Jiang Cheng hit him on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it, you look fine. This isn’t one of Uncle Jiang’s receptions. Here, gimme your arm.” Jiang Cheng, reluctantly, stuck out his arm. Wei Wuxian quickly undid his cuff button and then rolled the sleeves up to just under his elbow.
He stared at his bare forearm. Fortunately his terrible tan line was up around his bicep.
Wei Wuxian grabbed his other arm and rolled that sleeve up as well, and then went for the button at Jiang Cheng’s throat.
“Seriously, isn’t this a bit—” Jiang Cheng squirmed.
“It's absolutely fine. This style of collar looks better with a couple buttons open anyway, just one more than you had. It’s not one of your work ones, is it?”
Jiang Cheng flushed. “Whatever,” he grumbled.
Wei Wuxian was right though - it wasn’t a work shirt. He knew how to dress for work, felt comfortable and confident in being both fashionable and professional there. It was different, with Xichen looking at him.
“There you go.” Wei Wuxian smoothed down the fabric over his shoulders and then patted them, in a gesture Jiang Cheng recognised from their sister: she’d straightened their ties and fixed their collars for a lot longer than was probably necessary.
Jiang Cheng was about to make himself thank his brother, when Wei Wuxian’s eyes fell behind his shoulder.
“Oh! Hey you brought my slacks, I was wondering where those were! Those make my ass look great, Lan Zhan is going to lose his mind!”
Jiang Cheng fled the room, leaving Wei Wuxian to get dressed.
Jiang Cheng emerged from the guest room, looked around, and set himself to fixing up the table. He looked a little flustered and stiff. Jiang Yanli was merciful enough not to stop him, look at him and call him handsome, but it was a close thing.
Her little brother, all dressed up for a date.
Jiang Cheng exuded his nervous aura all over her kitchen while Jiang Yanli put the finishing touches on dinner.
“A-Cheng,” she finally said, when he was hovering next to her, looking into her pots and pans and readjusting his shirt. “A-Cheng, what’s wrong?”
“It’s fine. Just. We came here to cheer you up, and now I’m worrying you again.”
Jiang Yanli sighed, and pulled both of her little brother’s hands towards her. “You’re my baby brother. I’m always going to worry about you a little, that’s only natural. But I’ll worry less if you tell me what’s got you wound up.”
“... I usually. Prepare a pretty long time for dates with Xichen. I don’t think he knows what I usually look like, the only casual pictures I send him are of Zidian.”
It wasn’t, she knew, about the looks only. Or even at all.
Jiang Yanli swung their hands and smiled at her little brother. This one, at least, she could answer for him. “He does know. Do you remember when I came to visit you and A-Xian after finals, right before you graduated?”
“Vaguely. I was. Really exhausted.”
“Well, then you might not remember that I came with a colleague whose little brother also had his finals around that time?”
Jiang Cheng’s eyes widened. His face twisted from pleased, to horrified, to his customary scowl.
“I’m afraid so. I may have pointed both of you out to him back then, I was just so proud you were graduating.”
Jiang Cheng looked down at their hands, refusing to meet her gaze. He swallowed thickly. His parents had never allowed for doubt that he would graduate, but. Well. His health had not been the best, his last two years of university.
He obviously didn’t remember the day in particular, but he must remember what he had looked like in general back then: over-caffeinated and under-rested, running after Wei Wuxian for something he said. Usually yelling.
She squeezed his hands and smiled. “Zixuan … he’s also really put together most of the time, but I kind of like him best when he’s a little frazzled. That feels real to me.”
Jiang Cheng squeezed her hands back. “A-Jie.”
He didn’t say thank you, but then, between the three of them, that usually wasn’t needed. With a small sigh, she let go of his hands.
“Wangji.”
Lan Wangji briefly considered fleeing into the torrential downpour blanketing Jiang Yanli’s house, then pulled the car door shut again and turned to look at his brother.
“Mn?”
“They all like you.”
Lan Wangji gave his brother a flat look. Jiang Wanyin was in that house, and Lan Wangji apparently nearly broke his fridge two weeks ago. Which he was also probably still mad about.
Jiang Wanyin was always angry about something though - had been since school.
It rankled that he was right this time. Lan Wangji hadn’t exactly been in his right mind, but they had decided - all three of them together - that the sauce was safe. He remembered that much, although the rest of the night was a blank. He only had the vaguest explanation from Nie Huaisang for anything that happened before Wei Ying got there.
“All of them,” Xichen insisted. He smiled, a little lopsidedly. “Or we wouldn’t be here.”
“We do not like each other,” Lan Wangji said at long last, “and that has always been fine with both of us.”
Except he had to, grudgingly, admit that they had both made an effort last time. Before Wei Ying got there. Not that Jiang Wanyin had sent him the recipe for the ribs in the end, but he had been... Almost encouraging.
“Wanyin … he expresses himself in a manner, which. Ah…”
Xichen trailed off, grimacing a little.
Lan Wangji wouldn't know how to say it politely either, but he could respect his brother trying to do so. Jiang Wanyin was composed in about equal parts of anger and an inferiority complex, and the way he went to putty when Xichen looked at him didn’t translate well to any other social interactions he took part in.
“He. May not always express his opinions in the most … straightforward way.”
Lan Wangji didn’t reply to that. He really did not need to.
“And didn’t he text you a picture of his dog?”
Lan Wangji frowned. That had indeed happened.
Lan Wangji (18:07): Zidian?
Jiang Wanyin (18:15): Huaisang is watching her for the weekend. She’s getting spoiled.
Jiang Wanyin (18:15): [dogsitting.jpg]
Jiang Wanyin (18:37): You seem to like animals. Do you keep any?
Lan Wangji (18:38): [meadow.gif]
And since then, there had been nothing. Who didn’t like bunnies flopping over and nibbling on grass? It was an objectively adorable sight and should appeal to anyone.
“She’s a good dog,” Lan Wangji replied, after a long moment of thinking it over.
It would be best if they could get along. Lan Wangji could see that, simply on a practical level: they were dating each other’s brothers. If he had anything to say about it, Jiang Wanyin would be his brother-in-law one day.
It would be very awkward if they kept clashing.
It was just that Jiang Wanyin was, fundamentally, a very awkward person to deal with. He was entirely unlike both his siblings, who seemed warm and kind where he was ready to lash out at the most minute provocation.
Especially at Wei Ying.
Xichen put a hand on his, squeezed lightly.
“He takes a while to warm up to people, just like you.”
Lan Wangji stared at his brother, even as he removed his hand and reached into the back seat to get his umbrella.
He had been braced for hostility from Jiang Wanyin, and maybe even that thinly veiled steel that Jiang Yanli could bring into her voice when her significant patience finally ran out.
Just like you.
He had not been prepared to be betrayed by his own brother.
“Lan Zhan!”
Wei Wuxian nearly bounded out into the rain to greet Lan Wangji, but Jiang Yanli held on to the back of his shirt at the last moment, tugging him back into her entryway with only the slightest application of force.
Lan Wangji caught up to Lan Xichen, and they walked up to the front door together.
Jiang Yanli gestured at them to step inside and closed the door behind them. Wei Wuxian immediately disrupted the order of proceedings by tugging on Lan Wangji’s sleeve to pull him close, before he even had his shoes off.
“Lan Zhan, ah, Lan Zhan! Who knew you’d look so nice when you’re not all dressed up for work!? Do I get a kiss?”
Lan Wangji gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Lan Xichen turned to hand their gift to Jiang Yanli without interrupting the two. She took it, equally silently, and gave him a brief smile.
Behind her shoulder, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes - then caught Lan Xichen’s eye, flushed bright red, took the gift from Jiang Yanli and disappeared to put it away.
“Nooo,” Wei Wuxian whined, letting himself sink dramatically against Lan Wangji’s chest. His flirting was… certainly shameless, but Lan Xichen couldn’t bring himself to judge him. Not when Lan Wangji looked so happy for it. “A real one, a real one! My love is treating me too cruelly after not meeting in so long!”
“15 days, Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, quietly.
“An eternity,” Wei Wuxian said, right as Jiang Cheng came back. “Without seeing my Lan Zhan!”
Jiang Cheng had reappeared and was now standing, ramrod straight, a few steps behind his siblings. It reminded Lan Xichen of the first time they’d talked, at that party.
It was the opposite of the sweetly awkward welcome two weeks ago. Had his drunken behaviour upset him after all? He’d thought, after the rather long morning that they lingered, that things were fine between them.
But here he was. Not angry - if he was angry, Lan Xichen would at least know why. But this was not angry. Jiang Cheng, when he was angry, would scowl and hiss and show quite clearly where it came from. He rubbed himself raw on his anger in a way that made it impossible to miss the source. This - the perfect posture, the tight jaw, the firm eye contact. This was not angry, it was uneasy.
Xichen found himself meeting it with his most placid smile almost by reflex - and he knew immediately that it had been a mistake.
“Xichen, Lan Wangji. Let me take your coats?”
He sounded. Polite.
As soon as he had their things, Wanyin disappeared again. He hadn’t come close enough for their usual kiss hello.
Apparently, his tone had even gotten through to Wei Wuxian, who looked after Jiang Cheng. Lan Wangji looked after him too, his brow pulled into a slight frown.
“Jiejie, I’ll—” Wei Wuxian started, and his sister put her hand on his arm and shook her head. They had a silent conversation with their eyebrows, and then turned to look at Lan Xichen.
“Excuse me,” Lan Xichen murmured, and hurried into the house after his boyfriend.
He found Jiang Cheng down a hallway, their wet things put away to dry somewhere. His face was red and he was scowling, but it froze into careful neutrality when he spotted Lan Xichen standing there.
“Wanyin,” he said. “Hello.”
For a moment, they stood across from each other, looking. Lan Xichen wasn’t sure what Jiang Cheng was seeing on his face, but after a moment he stepped into reach. His shoulders were up, like he was expecting a blow, not a gentle touch.
“Sorry,” he said. “I.” He gestured in the direction of the front hallway. The sound of Jiang Yanli’s soft laughter was drifting towards them from that direction.
Lan Xichen let out a breath, touched Jiang Cheng’s shoulder - and when that relaxed him, he pulled the younger man into a hug.
“I’m not like them,” he said, into Lan Xichen’s chest, after a moment. He didn’t clarify if that’s what he was apologising for, or if that was an explanation for his strange mood.
“I know that,” Lan Xichen said. He liked this prickly man who couldn’t put a friendly mask on to save his life or dignity, after all. But saying that would probably be too much for him. He got embarrassed so very easily. “Do you still want me here?”
A nod.
He kissed the top of Jiang Cheng’s head, and then his mouth when he turned his face up for it. “Do you want to go join them?”
Jiang Cheng took his hand, gripping a little too tight, and nodded again.
By the time they all got to the dinner table, Lan Wangji’s ears were bright red, but Wei Wuxian had gotten his kiss.
“I’ve been thinking about how to do this for a while,” Jiang Yanli said. “At least since you absconded with A-Cheng at the party.” She gave Xichen a meaningful look, and he ducked his hand.
“A-Jie,” Jiang Cheng whined. “Wei Wuxian didn’t know about that! And we talked. We literally just talked about the modelling of stochastics for—”
“No maths at dinner!” Wei Wuxian complained.
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes extra hard, and Lan Xichen used that moment to lean in and brush a quick kiss against his temple. It was chaste, but Wei Wuxian could watch his little brother melt and then start to bubble, not unlike stew. It was like watching a really old married couple that was still sweet on each other, only Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen had only been dating for a bit more than half a year.
“Shut up, you don’t even know how to suck at maths, and that professor should have been sacked,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. “Sorry A-Jie, I interrupted you.”
“Well, no matter,” Jiang Yanli said, blithely. “It might have been earlier than that anyway. That time when A-Xian had detention, I was sure—”
“Jiejie!”
“That was all summer,” Lan Zhan, the traitor, said. Wei Wuxian made a face at him. “Wei Ying?”
“Doesn’t matter!” Wei Wuxian said hastily. He had possibly, maybe, hypothetically, spent a not insignificant amount of time complaining about Lan Wangji’s perfect face back then, and about how much he wanted to bully him because he “at least made an expression” when he was angry.
Fuck, he’d been a shitty kid. The only good part about summer detention had been the insights he gained about himself.
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes but didn’t betray his secrets. Wei Wuxian mentally promised he would take at least five minutes before he started slurping the soup through the lotus roots to see how much it would embarrass Jiang Cheng.
“As I was saying,” Jiang Yanli said, “A-Cheng and A-Xian - their happiness is very important to me. So I’m glad you could all make it here, and we can enjoy a nice evening together.”
“Let’s drink to that!” Wei Wuxian said, eager to end the nicest shovel talk in the history of shovel talks, before his sister could go digging into more of her apparent stockpiles of embarrassing Lan-Zhan-adjacent anecdotes.
Jiang Cheng let out a choked noise. “Let’s absolutely not!”
Jiang Yanli was maybe not happy, but she was content.
Her brothers were both obviously… well, in Jiang Cheng’s case saying he was obviously having a good time was maybe not entirely true.
Wei Wuxian was definitely feeding his Lan Zhan too many of the ribs out of the soup, but he was stoically eating every one that Wei Wuxian gave him. In the ordinary course of things, Jiang Yanli would have rescued any guest who was eating more than they wanted to at her table, but. Well.
Jiang Cheng gently stopped Lan Xichen before he could serve himself from one of the dishes. “Those are not bell peppers,” he said, low. Then he leaned in closer to him and they exchanged some whispers, resulting in slight mutual jostling of their shoulders.
Jiang Cheng’s face stayed frowny, but got gradually redder. Then there was a quick kiss again.
Jiang Yanli smiled to herself. She could imagine what they said, because she’d said the same thing to Jin Zixuan many times before: “I won’t have any either, because I still want to kiss you later.”
She was happy for her brothers.
She just. Kind of wished.
“A-Jie?” Jiang Cheng asked.
“It’s nothing, keep eating, keep eating. There’s enough for everyone.”
“For half a village,” Wei Wuxian said cheerfully, “if I wasn’t involved, that is— ...Was that a car? Are you expecting anyone else, Jiejie?”
For a brief moment she thought: He made it after all. “I don’t know, it could be at the neighbours’. I’ll go check.”
She hurried to the front door, and grabbed her umbrella in case whoever it was didn’t have one themselves. The rain was still coming down heavily, but she recognised the car that had pulled up behind Lan Xichen’s, and her heart started beating a little faster.
She kicked off her slippers and pushed her feet into the first pair of shoes she found that actually belonged to her before rushing outside.
She got to the car just as Jin Zixuan pushed open the door, and she yanked him up and into a kiss. So what if her nosy brothers had probably followed her to the door! They’d been lovey-dovey all evening too.
“Oh. Uh,” an unfamiliar voice said, from the back seat.
“A-Li. I can’t stay long,” Jin Zixuan said. He took one of those really long, nerve-wracking pauses he did. “I just. Wanted to give you these. I’m sorry about missing dinner. And. I guess I fell asleep on them.” He sighed, and handed her a sorry bouquet of flowers that had probably been lovely before he, apparently, fell asleep on them.
Some of the petals were still stuck in his hair and on his clothes.
She was going to press and save every bloom she could rescue from the bouquet.
He was wet already, despite being crowded under her umbrella right now.
“There was a… problem, at Mo Xuanyu’s house, so he’ll be staying at my place for a while.”
Jiang Yanli, very gently, placed a finger against Jin Zixuan’s mouth to shush him.
“Mo Xuanyu?”
“Yes?” a timid voice from the dark backseat said.
“I’m Jiang Yanli, I’m your brother’s fiancée. If you’d rather just get home and rest, that’s fine. But we’re having dinner, so if you’d like to come in—”
Mo Xuanyu said “Ah, no, it's! I’m not hungr—” at the same time as his stomach gave an audible gurgle. He made a miserable noise. “...Uhm... If it’s not a bother?...”
Jiang Yanli’s heart clenched.
“Not at all,” she said. Jin Zixuan retrieved his own umbrella, and they walked Mo Xuanyu to the front of the house.
“Ah,” she said. “Before we get in there— my brothers came over to keep me company.”
Jin Zixuan looked like he might bolt back out into the rain, but instead he stood up straight and nodded. Avoiding eye contact, he said: “I’m glad. I’m glad you weren’t all by yourself.”
“And their boyfriends,” Jiang Yanli added.
Mo Xuanyu’s eyes went wide, and his mouth fell open a little. “Your brothers have boyfriends? And they’re over for dinner?”
Jin Zixuan nodded, very slightly. Jiang Yanli could tell he probably wanted to give Mo Xuanyu a hug or something like that, but he was wet and probably cold, so she’d let his excuse stand this time.
She opened her arms instead, in invitation. Mo Xuanyu accepted after a moment. He was skinny in her arms, a slip of a thing. She patted his head.
“Mhm, they are. I invited them.” Jiang Yanli said. “Let’s introduce you to everyone, alright?”
She wouldn’t tell him ‘you’re basically family now’, she decided. Not until she’d shown him what she meant by that.
And the best way to do that, probably, was with ribs.