Beijing Capital International Airport’s private terminal was a different world from the main building.

No queues, no crowds, no announcements overhead.

Just a clean, quiet space where the staff moved efficiently and nobody looked twice at anyone.

Zhang Wei handled the documentation at the counter while Liuxian stood beside Guiying with his hands in his pockets.

Guiying had his sunglasses on and his canvas tote over one shoulder and was looking around the terminal with the focused interest of someone cataloguing everything.

When the formalities were done Zhang Wei led them out across the tarmac.

Guiying saw the jet and stopped walking.

It was a Gulfstream, white with a dark stripe along the body, sitting on the tarmac with the quiet confidence of something that had never needed to explain itself.

He looked at it for a moment. Then he pulled out his phone.

He took a picture of the exterior. Then walked closer and took another one. Then moved to get the angle of the stairs and took a third.

"Are you done?" Liuxian said.

"No," Guiying said, and took another one.

He went up the stairs slowly, stopping halfway to take one looking back at the tarmac. Inside he stood in the entrance of the cabin and looked at the cream leather seats, the polished surfaces, the small kitchen at the back, and took two more pictures.

Liuxian sat down and watched him with the expression of a man who was genuinely entertained and had nowhere to be for the next fourteen hours.

Guiying turned around and took a picture of the window. Then the seat configuration. Then the ceiling lighting because it was doing something interesting.

"Aren’t you going to take one with me?" Liuxian said.

Guiying looked at him. Then he came over, sat down beside him, and leaned in close. He held up his phone and took the picture.

He looked at it. They looked good. He took another one from a slightly different angle.

Liuxian looked at the photos over his shoulder. "Zhang Wei," he said.

Zhang Wei appeared from the front of the cabin.

"Take more of us," Liuxian said.

Zhang Wei took the phone without comment. He had the particular expression of a man who had been asked to do considerably stranger things and was choosing not to rank them.

Guiying leaned into Liuxian’s shoulder, Liuxian’s arm coming around him. Zhang Wei took the picture.

"Again," Liuxian said.

Zhang Wei took another. Liuxian turned and pressed a kiss to Guiying’s temple. Zhang Wei took that one too. Guiying turned to say something and Liuxian caught his face in his hand and kissed his cheek and Zhang Wei took that one without being asked.

"One more," Liuxian said. He pulled Guiying in properly, arms around him, and looked at the camera. Guiying looked at the camera too, slightly pink but not pulling away.

Zhang Wei took it.

He handed the phone back and returned to the front of the cabin.

Happy to get away from the couple serving dog food.

Guiying scrolled through the photos. They were good. All of them were good, which he was not going to say out loud.

He set his phone face down on the seat beside him.

"We look good," Liuxian said, looking over his shoulder.

"We do," Guiying said simply, and looked out the window as the jet began to move.

Liuxian held out his hand.

Guiying looked at it. "What?"

"The pictures. Send them to me."

Guiying opened his phone and airdropped them across. Liuxian scrolled through them slowly, stopping on one. The one where Guiying had leaned into his shoulder and they were both looking at the camera, Guiying slightly pink, Liuxian’s arm around him.

He set it as his wallpaper.

Guiying watched him do it. Something warm moved through his chest quietly and without announcement. He looked back at his own phone, scrolled through the same pictures, and stopped on the same one.

He set it as his wallpaper too.

Then he smiled a little, sheepishly, and turned to look out the window.

The pilot’s voice came through the speaker overhead.

"Good morning, this is your captain speaking. Our flight time to New York will be approximately thirteen to fourteen hours. Current weather at our destination is clear skies and twenty eight degrees. Sit back and enjoy the flight."

Zhang Wei appeared from the front of the cabin a few minutes later with a tablet and a folder.

He stood beside Liuxian’s seat and went through several things quickly and efficiently, his voice low. Liuxian listened, nodded twice, signed something Zhang Wei held out, and that was that. Zhang Wei disappeared back to the front without lingering.

Liuxian opened his laptop.

"Do whatever you like," he said to Guiying. "I have some work to get through."

Guiying nodded. He settled back in his seat, pulled out his phone, and opened his messages.

He found Limo’s contact.

Guiying: Hey. Heading to the States for a week. Already in the air. Using the jet’s wifi so don’t ask.

He sent it and looked out the window. The city was already far below them, shrinking into a grid of roads and buildings and then into nothing as the clouds came up around the jet and swallowed everything.

His phone buzzed almost immediately.

Limo: THE JET’S WIFI???? GUIYING???

Limo: You left without telling me?? I thought we were doing Saturday??

Limo: Also whose jet??

Guiying stared at the messages.

Guiying: My husband’s. Saturday is cancelled. We’ll reschedule when I’m back.

Limo: Your HUSBAND has a JET. Well anyone can own a jet,

Limo: Baby you really upgraded your lifestyle in mere weeks I am in awe of you

Guiying: Stop calling me baby.

Limo: Never going to happen. Have fun. Bring me something back.

Guiying: I’ll think about it.

He put his phone down and looked out at the clouds.

Across from him Liuxian was already deep in his documents, reading glasses on, entirely elsewhere.

Guiying looked at him for a moment.

Then he reclined his seat slightly, put his earphones in, and let the hum of the jet carry him somewhere quiet.