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“Should you not be asleep, brother?” Xichen hears Wangji quietly question from the kitchen doorway.
“Shouldn’t you?” Xichen asks, giving his brother a knowing look.
Wangji sighs, deciding not to question Xichen any longer. “Don’t stay out too late”.
Xichen hums in agreement, sure his brother can hear him even as he walks away back towards the stairs heading up to their bedrooms. Smiling to himself, he grabs his favorite picnic blanket, tosses it into his basket and grabs his keys.
It’s almost midnight, the time on his phone reading 11:20, but he’d gotten an idea that wouldn’t leave him alone.
Coincidentally, it just so happened that his boyfriend had texted him half an hour ago and off handedly mentioned he’d skipped dinner, currently still working on his midterm paper.
Xichen had to intervene. Mingjue was the type to neglect his health and his basic needs as a human being, while working himself to the ground. He was a man with plenty of responsibilities and big dreams, and sometimes he forgot to take care of himself.
Luckily, Xichen was always happy to care for him and remind him that he needed to look after himself. Which is why it was now 11:30 at night, and he was headed towards Mingjue’s apartment.
He arrives in record time, the lack of traffic cutting his trip there by a couple of minutes.
It’s now, 11:50, nearly midnight.
“Come downstairs” Xichen says softly over the phone as soon as Mingjue answers his call.
“What?!”
“Come. Down. Stairs.” is all Xichen offers before hanging up. He waits a couple of minutes, leaning against the side of his car, until finally a confused and slightly disheveled looking Mingjue appears from around the corner.
Looking no different than Xichen, he’s sporting some grey sweats, and whereas Xichen has on a blue hoodie—one Mingjue had so kindly gifted him—Mingjue sports an old and worn basketball jersey.
“What are you doing here?” Mingjue questions fondly, coming over to hug him. He presses Xichen against the car, breathing him in deeply. He pulls away and presses a chaste kiss to his lips.
“It is criminal that you’ve gone and skipped dinner” Xichen chastises, Mingjue groans and hides his face in Xichen’s neck. “I assume Huaisang is out, there’s no way he’d let you skip dinner like that. You only do that when he’s not around”
“He’s out on some school excursion—won’t be back until next week” Mingjue tells him.
“Ah, and you’re just mentioning this to me?”
“Sorry, it’s been a bit chaotic lately—school and work” Mingjue offers with a small shrug.
“I’m sorry too, I’ve also been quite busy” Xichen sighs, caressing Mingjue’s face.
“S’okay, I understand” Mingjue mumbles, lips brushing against Xichen’s. He captures them in a sweet, more languid kiss, relishing in the little sigh that escapes from Xichen. He nips at Xichen’s bottom lip, and revels at the feel of their tongues gliding against one another as he deepens the kiss, tightly holding on to Xichen’s waist.
“I’ve uh—I’ve brought—mmm, there’s food” Xichen says, dazedly. Mingjue chuckles and presses another kiss to his lips, laughing when Xichen chases after him as he pulls away.
“Food?” he questions.
“Ah! Yes! Well, I’ve been meaning to take you out on a picnic date—“
“Naturally”
“Anyways” Xichen continues, ignoring his boyfriend’s cheeky response, “I hadn’t really thought it all through, but we had pasta tonight. I’ve brought some for you, some breadsticks, and we had some meats, cheese and crackers in the fridge. Don’t worry, they’re not old. Uncle bought them for his book club over the weekend, and these were the leftover!” Xichen assures him.
“I love you” Mingjue whispers in awe, unable to help himself and kissing Xichen stupid once more.
“I love you too” Xichen sighs, lips still against Mingjue’s. “Ugh, okay c’mon. The park’s like a five minute walk from here”
He pushes Mingjue away for a second to pop open his passenger door and lifts up his picnic basket, blandishing it out with a mini ‘ta-da’.
Xichen then takes ahold of his boyfriend’s hand and drags him along, causing him to chuckle at his enthusiasm.
And just as he’d said, the park had really been just a block away.
“I didn’t even know there was a park around here” Mingjue muses as Xichen points towards a cute little lake area, next to a hill. It’s a bit of a ways away, but it seems to be the perfect spot to set up a picnic, so Mingjue doesn’t mind walking a little longer.
“You chose to live in this neighborhood, yet you didn’t acquaint yourself with it?” Xichen asks, judgement clear in his voice.
“Hey, I was just concerned with finding a cheap place to rent” Mingjue laughs, shrugging.
“Unbelievable” Xichen says, laughing himself. They’ve made it to the little hill now, and Xichen sets the basket down on the ground. “Help me with the blanket?”
Mingjue grabs the blanket out the basket and pulls it apart, handing one corner to Xichen, as they work together to extend it over the grass. Xichen gets on his knees and smoothes it all out, pulling the basket on top of it and beginning to pull things out.
“You sure managed to grab quite a spread for a picnic not quite throughly planned” Mingjue teases, sitting down next to his busy boyfriend.
“I beg your pardon, I said I hadn’t thought it all through not that it was poorly or not thoroughly planned” Xichen sniffs, handing Mingjue a warm container. “Eat your pasta before anything else” he tells him, knowing Mingjue’s penchant for snacking and nibbling on small foods before even touching his main meal.
“Aye, aye Captain” he salutes, earning himself a slap to the knee.
“Eat!”
“Okay, okay!” Mingjue laughs, opening his container, mouth watering at the sudden delicious scent wafting towards him.
Xichen places everything’s he’s brought on the blanket, as Mingjue enjoys his very late dinner, and hands him a water bottle.
“I did bring some tea, if you’d like some?” Xichen tells him, wiggling a thermos at him. Mingjue politely declines and takes the water bottle.
"You made this?" Mingjue asks, placing his now emptied container into the basket.
"Wangji's been cooking a lot lately, I think he’s trying to impress Jiang Wanyin with his culinary skills” Xichen muses.
“Well it was delicious, I hope his efforts are being appreciated” Mingjue chuckles.
“I’ll relay him the message”
Xichen pours himself some tea, snuggling beside Mingjue and asks him about his week, and how things have been. He feels guilty that they haven’t been able to make time for each other. Mingjue feels guilty as well and promises to try and make more time for them once he finishes up with his midterms.
They talk for a while longer before Xichen is yawning.
“I wish I’d have brought a pillow” Xichen chuckles. They’ve put everything away at this point, bellows full and content, the basket off to the side as the two stretched out across the blanket.
“Come here, you can use me as a pillow” Mingjue tells him, tugging Xichen closer. He lays down, and drags Xichen along with him, guiding him to his chest.
“My favorite pillow” Xichen hums, hugging Mingjue’s torso and leaning his head down on his chest.
“Look” Mingjue says softly, “you can actually see a few stars from here”
“Ah! You can!” Xichen says excitedly, turning against Mingjue to face the sky. “It’s beautiful!”
“Definitely” Mingjue whispers, but he isn’t looking up at the stars, instead he looks down at the beautiful man in his arms.