Work Text:
When Xie Lian returned to The Thousand Lights Temple, he was greeted by a festival.
Every surface of the temple was filled to the brim with assorted food, drinks, and gift boxes. A delectable scent wafted through the air, rivaling the bustling food markets he so loved to explore.
The sight before him made even the most grandiose banquets look like casual dinner parties in comparison. Every wall was plastered with decorations, and Xie Lian even spotted a few custom-made statues of himself positioned at the end of the room.
Hua Cheng had perched himself upon the altar and was boasting a very smug grin. A gaudy banner that he’d clearly crafted himself was strung above him, spanning the entire width of the building.
Xie Lian squinted to decipher it but quickly gave up. He’d reviewed enough of Hua Cheng's calligraphy workbooks to know that it said ‘happy something’, but there was no sense in trying to pick anything else out from the illegible blob.
“Welcome home, gege,” Hua Cheng called out, interrupting his thoughts.
“Thank you, San Lang,” Xie Lian responded with a gentle smile. His voice was even and bright, but on the inside he was completely panicking.
Hua Cheng was obviously excited to celebrate something. But Xie Lian hadn’t the faintest clue what it was. As he awkwardly fidgeted in his spot, he scrambled to remember whatever important date he must have forgotten.
Truthfully, the couple celebrated too many special occasions to count. Hua Cheng was an exceptionally romantic man, and he came up with no shortage of opportunities to honor their love. Xie Lian was starting to forget them all and had resorted to listing them in a notebook to ensure he didn’t lose track.
He mentally recounted all the anniversaries he could remember off the top of his head - their wedding, their reunion at the mountain, their first kiss, their first you-know-what, their first official date.
Xie Lian was too lost in his fervent thoughts to notice Hua Cheng’s soft approaching footsteps, and he jumped a little when he was wrapped in a sudden embrace.
“Does gege know what day it is?” Hua Cheng whispered, with an upward lilt to his deep voice.
“O-Of course I do! It’s… February 29th, is it not?” Xie Lian said, hoping to stall for time while he scrambled for a better answer.
“That is correct,” Hua Cheng happily responded. “And do you know what that means?”
He slowly escorted Xie Lian to the table and helped him into his seat before taking a position at his side, his dark eye beaming with anticipation.
Xie Lian felt a bead of sweat drip down his face. It was useless - he hadn’t the first clue what Hua Cheng was so excited about. As far as he could tell, there was nothing special about February 29th.
“San Lang… can I be honest with you?” he eventually asked.
Hua Cheng nodded firmly, then wove their fingers together. “Of course. San Lang wishes for nothing more.”
“...I’m terribly sorry, but I have no idea what we’re celebrating today.”
He leaned over and propped his head on Hua Cheng’s shoulder. At the very least, he figured a little physical affection would help ease his husband’s inevitable disappointment.
“San Lang understands,” Hua Cheng immediately replied with a kind smile, pressing a light kiss to Xie Lian’s head. “It’s our first time celebrating this particular occasion, after all.”
Xie Lian was overcome with relief, and his eyes immediately lit up. Now that his conscience had been cleared, he was genuinely curious.
“So? What are we celebrating?”
“Leap Year,” Hua Cheng responded, his lips curling into a large smile as the words rolled off his tongue.
“Leap Year?” Xie Lian asked, tilting his head to the side. “I… don’t think I’ve ever heard of that. What does that mean?”
“It’s simple,” Hua Cheng responded as he pulled his lover a little tighter, “every four years, there is an extra day in the year.”
“...Really? I had no idea,” Xie Lian mumbled. He suddenly realized that he needed to pay a little more attention to world affairs. How could he have gone 800 years without hearing about this?
The mystery had been partially solved, at least. He now knew what they were celebrating, but he still had no clue why they were celebrating.
“It would seem that gege is still a little bit confused,” Hua Cheng said with a light laugh.
Xie Lian slumped his shoulders in shame - his husband could always read him like an open book.
“You’re right. I’m afraid I still don’t understand the meaning behind all of this."
“Let San Lang give you a little hint, then. How many dishes does gege think I prepared for today’s celebration?”
Xie Lian’s head throbbed from even thinking about counting the massive wall of goodies that cluttered the once barren halls of their temple, but he still attempted to give an honest reply.
“Let’s see… it must be well over a hundred.”
“194,” Hua Cheng swiftly replied.
He offered no further explanation, and Xie Lian could tell by the coy expression dancing across Hua Cheng’s face that he was waiting for him to solve the puzzle himself.
Xie Lian furiously searched his brain to find some kind of symbolism behind the number. 194, 194, 194. Number of days they’d been married? He shook his head - they’d just celebrated their 500 day anniversary, after all. Number of times they’d kissed? That couldn’t have been right either; that number was surely in the hundreds of thousands.
“Does gege need another hint?” Hua Cheng’s flirty voice drifted into his ear, pulling him out from his stupor.
“I’m afraid I’m beyond hints. San Lang, can you just give me the answer? We may be here all day if I have to figure this out on my own…”
“Of course. San Lang doesn’t mind in the slightest,” came the proud reply.
Hua Cheng immediately pivoted to face Xie Lian straight on, and he gently cupped his hands in his own. With a touch as light as a feather, he pressed a delicate kiss to each one of Xie Lian’s fingers.
Once Hua Cheng was seemingly satisfied, he looked straight into his husband’s eyes. Xie Lian had been the subject of that passionate gaze many times before, but he still wasn’t accustomed to the overwhelming warmth it filled him with.
“Though we’re technically celebrating Leap Year today,” Hua Cheng started, his low voice tickling Xie Lian’s ears, “we’re really celebrating you, gege.”
“M-Me? What do you mean?” Xie Lian replied. He could feel the blush slowly creeping on his cheeks.
“In the course of 800 years, there have been 194 leap years,” Hua Cheng continued, “which is equivalent to an extra 194 days.”
“Ok, I suppose that makes sense... So to celebrate all those extra days, you’ve prepared… 194 gifts? I still don’t understand what that has to do with me, though."
Hua Cheng responded with an incredibly soft smile.
“San Lang has prepared 194 dishes in total. Each one commemorates an additional day that gege has graced this world with his presence.”
Xie Lian’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor, and the faint blush on his cheeks erupted into a full volcanic hue. He found himself speechless in the face of Hua Cheng’s incredibly candid, tooth-rotting, mind-blowing level of sweetness.
But this was Hua Cheng - of course he wouldn’t stop there. He continued to assault Xie Lian with his romantic sweet-nothings, until he threatened to melt into a pile of mush.
“Thank you,” he whispered softly, “thank you for being on this Earth. Even though we weren’t together for most of them, San Lang is eternally grateful for every one of those 194 additional days. Just knowing that you were there, walking in the same world as me, is more than enough.”
“San Lang, you…you!” Xie Lian cried out, tears threatening to spill from his quivering eyes.
He didn’t know what to do with himself and opted to collapse into his husband’s arms - partially from overflowing gratitude, and partially from soul-shattering embarrassment.
“Does gege… like San Lang’s surprise?” Hua Cheng asked, a slight trepidation in his voice.
Xie Lian furiously nodded and nuzzled against his husband’s broad chest. “Thank you, San Lang. For everything. I’ll never forget this Leap Year for the rest of my life!”
He clung desperately to Hua Cheng’s robes, enjoying the sensation of his deep, hearty laugh. Though he couldn’t see his husband's face, he could sense his delight from the cadence of his voice and the light bounce to his movements.
“Shall we enjoy some of this food, then?” Hua Cheng asked.
As if on cue, Xie Lian’s stomach rumbled in agreement.
“Yes! That sounds wonderful,” he said, sitting up and clapping his hands together.
The two of them eagerly helped themselves to the massive spread. There were dishes from every region, encompassing a wide variety of sweet, spicy, salty, and everything in between.
“This is absolutely incredible! Where did you get all these dishes?” Xie Lian asked between bites, his cheeks stuffed to the brim.
“San Lang made each and every one of them for you,” came Hua Cheng’s casual response.
Xie Lian coughed and choked a bit, nearly spewing his food all over the giant table in front of them. His eyes widened with disbelief as he spun around to look at Hua Cheng, whose cheeks were uncharacteristically flushed.
“San Lang, you must be joking… You did all this yourself?! I was only gone for a few days, though… Where did you find the time?”
“It was nothing,” Hua Cheng mumbled, refusing to meet his gaze.
Xie Lian couldn’t help but laugh at the massive understatement. And for a brief moment, he shuddered. If Hua Cheng only applied this much effort to other aspects of his life, then there would be no limit to his achievements.
But his disbelief quickly transformed into utter, overwhelming fondness as he realized how hard Hua Cheng must have worked to complete all these preparations in such a short time frame, all on his behalf.
“Thank you, San Lang. You’re the best,” he said, leaning over to steal a quick kiss.
The sudden touch seemed to ignite something within Hua Cheng, and he responded in kind with a devilish grin.
“Gege, shall we pause for a moment to celebrate in… other ways?”
Xie Lian immediately silenced him with another kiss and coughed to stifle the embarrassment bubbling in his chest.
“...There will be time for that later,” he said, attempting to keep a straight face and cool down his flaming face. “For now, we should eat while the food is still warm. We won’t have another chance to celebrate like this ever again, after all.”
Hua Cheng had just loaded up a plate but nearly dropped it at Xie Lian’s sudden, casual admission.
“What… does gege mean by this?” he asked, his low voice even deeper than usual.
Xie Lian suddenly realized that his words carried a much heavier connotation than he’d intended. He quickly waved his hands back and forth to calm Hua Cheng, who looked about ready to faint.
“No, no, no! I don’t mean anything bad. What I meant to say is that this is a once in a lifetime celebration. We should enjoy it to its fullest!”
Hua Cheng exhaled a heavy sigh, then slowly picked up his plate with unsteady hands.
“Gege really knows how to give his San Lang a fright,” he pouted. “I don’t think I’ll recover from the shock so easily.”
Xie Lian could tell from his husband’s mischievous, not-so-subtle glances that he was asking for a little reparation, and he happily indulged him with another light kiss.
Hua Cheng took the opportunity to steal a few more kisses before reluctantly letting his husband get back to enjoying his meal. They took a few more bites in silence - not for lack of conversation, but because the food was too delicious to spare another word - before Hua Cheng spoke up again.
“Why do you think this is a once in a lifetime celebration?”
“Is it not? I assumed you wanted to celebrate our first Leap Year together. Surely you don’t mean to make 194 dishes like this every four years?” Xie Lian mused with a light chuckle.
“Of course not. I will be making 195 dishes for the next Leap Year.”
Hua Cheng casually added another serving of grilled meat to Xie Lian's already overflowing plate. “As such, gege must try everything here today. We’ll compile a list of the ones you liked and use it as a reference for next time.”
“...Next time,” Xie Lian quietly echoed, a dark shadow falling over his face.
A smile spread across Hua Cheng’s face as he pulled out a notebook from his sleeves and proudly showed it off.
“San Lang has been compiling a comprehensive list of ideas. In another 800 years, we’ll need enough recipes to cover 388 days, after all.”
“…388 days,” Xie Lian mumbled.
Trying all 194 of Hua Cheng’s handcrafted labors of love was already reaching a difficulty level that rivaled the greatest of heavenly tribulations. He could already feel a stomachache coming on by the mere thought of tasting 388 of them.
Even so, he couldn’t deny the happiness he felt at seeing his husband’s excitement. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to being spoiled so deeply, and he was still somewhat skeptical about Hua Cheng’s extreme tendency to go above and beyond. But there was something special about the way he earnestly expressed his devotion.
Hua Cheng had made his first Leap Year incredibly memorable, and the ones they'd celebrate together over the next 800 years would certainly be nothing short of amazing.
With a heartfelt sigh, Xie Lian looked fondly at his lover and squeezed his hand tight.
“Happy Leap Year, San Lang,” he whispered.