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It was a beautiful day. The sky blue. No clouds far and wide. The sun shining bright and warm. A light breeze making sure the heat would not turn stifling.
It was the perfect day for a wedding. Their wedding. More perfect than they could have imagined when they set the date for the end of August, knowing the weather could also turn out to be the exact opposite: Namely, cloudy, cold and rainy...
They had planned an outside-wedding. Well... Xiao Xingchen had. Xue Yang had just tagged along during all the preparations, leaving all decisions to his soon-to-be husband, as he himself couldn't care less about any of these traditions and formalities and festive necessities.
If it had been solely up to him, he'd have dragged Xiao Xingchen in front of a priest half a year ago, right after he proposed to him, and consumated the marriage not an hour later. Who cared about all this pompous, sappy nonsense...
Well, Xiao Xingchen did. So he had had no choice, but to go along with it. After all, he couldn't deny Xiao Xingchen anything. What his Daozhang wanted he got. Simple as that.
So now here they were. Both dressed in resplendent, crimson, gold-patterned robes, both their hair done up in an elaborate style, shimmering, heavy headpieces on top like crowns. Additionally, Xiao Xingchen had donned a light-red veil. Such they walked down the ail – a pebbled pathway – leading towards a small shrine under a huge, old katsura tree, where a Daoist priest, dressed in black, was already waiting.
The Daoist priest looked stern and solemn. To any outsider it would have looked condescending, but Xue Yang and Xingchen knew that in truth, deep down, that man was currently trying his best not to get emotional as he saw his best friend and the man he loved with all his heart and soul glide down the aisle, both looking like immortal gods descending to earth...
Along the path on either side stood their friends and family and just all the people that were close to them. Xingchen's former shifu and basically adoptive mother Baoshan Sanren. His cousin and also Xue Yang's best buddy Wei Wuxian with his spouse and son. Xingchen's colleagues Wen Qing and Wen Ning. And Xue Yang's colleague Meng Yao with his boyfriend Lan Xichen. And then there was, of course, their little A-Qing, who after today would truly become Xiao Xingchen's and Xue Yang's daughter. Their marriage being a major key in the adoption process.
All of them threw pink and white peach blossoms at them while they walked, the petals dancing in the air like little forest faries, the whole scene looking truly magical.
At last they reached the shrine and Song Lan began the wedding ceremony. Xingchen's hand trembled slightly in his. Or maybe it was Xue Yang's hand that trembled (though he'd never admit that). Soon both of them sank down onto their knees, getting ready to execute the three traditional wedding bows.
First, they bowed to heaven and earth, worhipping the universe and all sacred in life.
Next, they had to bow to their parents to show them respect and gratitude. As neither of the two had parents any more, they both bowed to a stone tablet and to Baoshan Sanren in their stead, who was at this point a parent to both of them.
At last, they finally bowed to each other. With this act, cementing the marriage and symbolically committing themselves fully to each other.
Song Lan now presented them both with a red string. The red string of fate – as legends called it. Consecutively, each of them wound the string around the others ring finger, securing it with a small bow. Connecting their hearts and souls and lives, to never be apart again.
Then they were given each a small cup of wine (in the case of Xiao Xingchen it was of course water, as his Daozhang did not drink alcohol), which they, after interlocking their arms, brought to their lips, downing the cup's content in one swig. Another cementation of them binding themselves to each other.
At long last, Xue Yang then finally got to lift the veil off Xiao Xingchen's face. His hands that were holding up the veil trmebled almost imperceptively and his breath got caught in his throat, his heart stuttering, too, as he beheld just how utterly beautiful and ethereal Xingchen looked in that moment.
He was so struck by it, by him, that he could only stare. Until he heard someone clear his throat – Wie Wuxian no doubt. It finally made him snap out of it, a wide grin spreading on his face. And then he leaned down and Xiao Xingchen with a reflection of his grin on his own face and a lovely blush on his cheeks, leaned toward him as well, And then their lips crashed together in one long, lingering kiss.
With that, the wedding ritual was completed. Xiao Xingchen was Xue Yang's husband and he was his in turn. Both of them were now officially bound together and had become one. Forever.