Work Text:
When Dan Heng emerges from the Archive the morning of the fourteenth, he finds three gift boxes awaiting him on his doorstep.
Two of them are expected, having received them nearly every year: Jing Yuan’s Friendship chocolates and Ren’s We’re-Married-But-I’m-Still-Killing-You chocolates.
The third is a rectangular box elegantly wrapped in heavy white paper with an ornate textured pattern, done up with a blue silk bow. He gives it a curious look but sets it aside for later with the other two on his desk. Picking up the three bags of sweets he had prepared for Himeko, March, and Stelle, he heads to breakfast.
~
When he gets back to the Archive, the three boxes are still awaiting him on the table. Curiously, he goes to inspect the white box.
No tag. No note. And instead of chocolates or sweets, inside is a handpicked assortment of savory treats. He only recognizes maybe a fourth of them from Luofu, and one special pastry that has to be imported from Fanghu—Jing Yuan had gotten it for him one time.
He tries one of the unfamiliar treats and finds his eyes slitting in pleasure.
Mmm. He doesn’t care much about what he eats, but it is delicious, possibly the best thing he has ever tasted.
He picks up another, which turns out to be just as scrumptious. And then another.
Before he knows it, he has polished off the entire box.
He is absolutely stuffed, eating so much after having a full breakfast, but it is so good that he still finds himself craving more. Dan Heng contemplates the empty box, ignoring the twinge of disappointment that there isn’t more.
Someone who is extremely familiar with Xianzhou…and who knows Dan Heng’s taste even better than himself.
There is someone that immediately comes to mind, but he can’t imagine any reason that person would give him a gift on this day in particular.
And the two people from Xianzhou he could theoretically probe for information… Dan Heng’s gaze drifts to the other two boxes. He already has a good idea of what is in them, but he opens them up to confirm.
Jing Yuan’s is the usual top of the line tea and a gourmet variety of flavored nuts and dried fruits.
Ren’s is a box of chocolates—because he was weirdly traditional about some things. So even though Dan Feng did not like sweets, Yingxing had always gotten chocolates for him, going to great lengths to find exquisite dark chocolates he might like, just a tad sweet.
The gift Dan Heng received from Ren had not always been so benign, of course. It was only after that so called reunion in Scalegorge that Dan Heng had gotten something edible. The years before, it had always been sickeningly sweet chocolates, drenched in blood and adorned with two withering blooms of spider lilies. As for the date, whether February or March, it was whichever one Ren remembered first. Dan Heng had taken special caution on the years where Ren sent something on both Valentine’s and White Day, because it meant the man’s mara was likely out of control, having forgotten himself that he already gifted Dan Heng the month before.
Funnily enough, the habit of gifting whichever day he remembered had been the same for Yingxing, though it had been because the Furnace Master had unpredictable fits of inspiration, locking himself in his forge to work feverishly for days at a time. If he remembered it in February, then it would be on Valentine’s. If he forgot, then he was sure to get something for Dan Feng on White Day.
As for Dan Feng? That man loved to spoil Yingxing so he had taken advantage of both holidays, using them as an excuse to buy lavish gifts.
Dan Heng pauses when three fresh blooms of spider lilies tumble out. Ren’s chocolates still always come with spider lilies though they are now fresh ones …but it has always been two.
Three …it was only this year that Dan Feng had reappeared in their lives.
Burning with rare curiosity, Dan Heng grabs his phone and sends Ren a text.
Dan Heng: Did you receive chocolates today?
Dan Feng had been …incapacitated in February so he wouldn’t have been able to send anything that month even if he had wanted to.
Dan Heng pops a Marriage-Murder chocolate into his mouth while he waits.
Mm. Smoked sea salt really does go well with chocolate.
Ren: Why would I get chocolates
That’s not a no…
Dan Heng: So you did get chocolates.
Dan Heng doesn’t wait for a reply because he knows there won’t be one.
His fingers itch to type ‘Do you know why Dan Feng would give me a gift today?’ except he can’t ask Ren why his husband (ex-husband?) is sending someone else not-chocolates.
He also can’t ask Dan Feng his other burning question—whether Ren gave Dan Feng chocolates this year, for a similar reason. It’s unlikely, but what if Ren didn’t? Then Dan Heng would have to eject himself off into space to avoid the awkwardness of being between two (not?) married people.
Jing Yuan …Dan Feng might have gotten his help with Dan Heng’s box, but he still doesn’t know what the general’s feelings for Dan Feng are so he can’t ask Jing Yuan unless he is willing to potentially stomp all over the man’s feelings.
Dan Heng looks from the empty white box to the three spider lilies.
Decisively, he goes to sleep off his food coma.
[End.]