Guiying had finished the last dumpling when Liuxian set his pen down and looked at him.

"I want to take you on a date.m" he said. "Somewhere nice. Just the two of us."

Guiying looked at him. "Mhm. I’ve never been on a date before."

"Well now’s your chance to try something new." Liuxian’s mouth curved slightly. "I’ll make sure it’s a memorable first date."

"You sound very confident about that."

"I am very confident about that."

Guiying looked at him for a moment, then looked back at his empty bowl. "Fine. When?"

"Saturday."

"I’m choosing what I wear."

"Obviously.." Liuxian said. "I wouldn’t dare. See how good you look right now."

"And no work calls."

"Not one."

"I mean it."

"Guiying. Not one call." He held up a hand. "You have my word."

Guiying studied him with the focused suspicion of someone who had learned that agreeable men were not always trustworthy men. Then he nodded, apparently satisfied, and pushed the empty bowl aside.

"Saturday then," he said. "Don’t disappoint me."

Liuxian looked at him with that quiet, warm expression.

"I won’t," he said simply.

He stood and crossed to the couch, tipping Guiying’s face up with two fingers and kissing him once, unhurried and certain, before straightening back up.

"Now let me finish my work so I can take you to dinner tonight."

Guiying looked at him. "You didn’t mention dinner."

"I’m mentioning it now."

"I have things to do tonight."

"After your things," Liuxian said, already heading back to his desk.

Guiying opened his mouth.

Then closed it.

He picked up his bag and stood.

"I’m leaving," he announced.

"I’ll pick you up at seven," Liuxian said, without looking up from his documents.

Guiying walked to the door, paused with his hand on the handle, and looked back.

Liuxian was already writing, entirely composed, the faintest curve at the corner of his mouth the only indication that he was aware of being watched.

------------------

Jae was at the arrivals gate by seven fifty, which was saying something because Jae was never early for anything.

He stood at the barrier with his hands in his pockets, scanning every face that came through the gates with the focused energy of someone who had been looking forward to this for considerably longer than he was going to admit out loud.

At eight seventeen, Tian Huan walked through.

Jae’s face broke into a grin.

He looked good.

Thinner than Jae remembered, and he walked with a slight adjustment that had not been there before, but his posture was straight and his expression was exactly as it had always been, measured, calm, taking in the arrivals hall with the unhurried assessment of someone who had spent years reading environments before entering them.

His eyes found Jae.

While Jae was already moving towards his direction.

He pulled him into a hug before Tian Huan had fully stopped walking, arms around him properly, the kind that said two years is a long time and I’m glad you’re back in one piece without requiring any of those words to be spoken out loud.

Tian Huan patted his back twice.

Jae released him and stepped back, looking him over with open and unashamed scrutiny.

"You look good! Skinnier but good. Are you eating? You look like you forgot what rice tastes like. We’re getting food immediately, I know a place, best braised pork in the city, Liuxian put me onto it last year and I’ve been going every week since—"

"Jae."

"Yeah?"

"Breathe."

Jae laughed. "I missed you man."

Tian Huan looked at him. Something shifted briefly behind his eyes, warm and quiet.

"I know," he said. "Let’s get food."

They walked toward the exit, Jae already talking again about the restaurant, about the welcome home party being planned, about Hao Lin’s new haircut that nobody had approved of. Tian Huan walked beside him in easy silence, occasionally nodding, occasionally delivering a single dry word that made Jae laugh harder than anything else could.

They were almost at the car when Jae said, as casually as he could manage, "Liuxian got married by the way."

Tian Huan stopped walking, the biggest surprise he had gotten all year.

Jae kept going.

"Get in the car," he said. "I’ll explain everything."

Tian Huan stood at the exit for exactly two seconds.

Then he followed.

Jae pulled out of the parking lot and immediately resumed talking before Tian Huan had fully buckled his seatbelt.

"Okay so. You know how Liuxian has been dodging that arranged marriage situation for like two years?"

"Mm."

"Well. He went to the civil affairs bureau to get out of it and somehow came back married to someone else entirely."

Tian Huan turned to look at him. "How so?"

"That’s the thing! Nobody knows the full story. Not even Zhang Wei and Zhang Wei knows everything." Jae merged onto the main road. "All we know is that he showed up at the ORF gala last month with this person on his arm and the entire country lost its mind overnight."

"Who is he?"

"Tang XiaoYu. Art collector. Twenty eight. Pretty enough to stop traffic apparently." Jae glanced at him. "I haven’t met him yet but I’ve seen the footage from the gala and honestly. Good for Liuxian."

Tian Huan was quiet for a moment.

"Is he good for him?" he said.

Jae thought about it. About the way Liuxian had sounded on the phone recently, different from before, less contained somehow, like something in him had loosened slightly and he had not bothered to tighten it back up.

"Yeah," he said. "I think so."

Tian Huan nodded and looked out the window.

"And the arranged marriage?" he said.

"Settled. Dia An was gracious about it apparently. The families are another story but when has that ever stopped Liuxian from doing exactly what he wants."

Tian Huan’s mouth did something that on anyone else would have been a smile.

"Fair," he said.

Jae turned the music down slightly and glanced at him again. "How’s the leg?"

"Fine."

"Huan."

"It’s manageable," Tian Huan said. "The physiotherapy helped. I have full mobility. It just doesn’t meet their standard anymore."

He said it the way he said most difficult things, flatly, without drama, like a weather report. Jae had always both admired and found this deeply frustrating about him.

"Their loss," Jae said.

Tian Huan said nothing.

"I mean it," Jae said. "Their loss. You gave them everything and they know it."