Chapter Text
"I'm not sure how I ever planned parties before I knew Meng Yao," Jin Zixuan muses, taking in the buzzing energy of the room. It's a gorgeous affair, almost everyone he knows and plenty of people he doesn't, all here to celebrate Mianmian and Qin Su's engagement. He had initially been nervous to ask Meng Yao for help, but his brother had taken to the planning with gusto, immaculately organized binders ensuring every detail from guest list to dessert menu was absolutely perfect.
Beside him, Mianmian snorts. "You didn't plan parties before you knew Meng Yao," she reminds him. "You barely went to parties before... " her wave encompasses the whole room, but he knows she means your brothers, your girlfriend, your friends. He tilts his head in acknowledgment — she's not wrong.
"It suits you, though," she says, still facing the party but teasing tone suddenly absent. "I've been glad for you, these last several months. It's been so good to see you this happy, Zixuan."
That's far more emotional honesty than he wants to undertake in a room full of everyone he knows, but he bumps her shoulder in appreciation and sees her smile out of the corner of his eye. "I'm pretty sure that's what I'm supposed to be telling you tonight, isn't it?"
"What's that you're telling my fiancée, Da-ge?" Qin Su walks up with a trio of champagne flutes, hands one to each of them, and then clinks her glass to Mianmian's before taking a sip.
"You know you don't need to call me that," Jin Zixuan protests, but he knows his smile gives his pleasure away. It's part of the routine between them, now, and he wouldn't trade it for anything. (Besides, Meng Yao always does his blink-quick version of double take when she says it in front of him, and that's more fun than he expected. He's started to understand what his friends mean about the joys of teasing one's siblings.) He raises his glass to the two of them. "Just that I'm glad you're happy, both of you. Engagement suits you."
He realizes a second too late that he's given Mianmian an opening, but he supposes she deserves it, tonight. "Not as well as marriage will!" she chirps as they toast, gleefully shameless. "Gonna wife your little sister up! C'mere, A-Su, let your future wife practice a little." She waggles her eyebrows in an exaggerated leer, and Jin Zixuan laughs as he pretends to hide his eyes and run away. Qin Su takes the opportunity to claim a kiss, so Jin Zixuan leaves them to it to wander through the party and observe the other guests.
Mo Xuanyu has cornered Lan Xichen and is animatedly explaining something that involves a great many hand gestures and what looks like several sheets of notes. Jin Zixuan veers closer in case his friend needs a rescue, but by the time he's in earshot, Lan Xichen has picked up the conversation. "It's really fascinating," he's saying, "the way mundane talismans developed along a similar path to cultivational arrays. There's a school of thought, in fact, that…" The magical theory goes over Jin Zixuan's head, but he's glad they both seem to be enjoying geeking out together.
He crosses paths with Lan Wangji — somehow still looking poised while carrying two glasses of seltzer, a flute of champagne, and an outrageously pink cocktail — who nods at him as he heads over to join his brother. Jin Zixuan recognizes it for the universal nod of introverts at a large social function and simply returns it without saying anything. He's not positive, but he thinks he catches the hint of a smile from Lan Wangji.
A little while later, he spots the Nies and the Wens (the ones he cares about anyway) chatting with Meng Yao. He joins their circle for a little while and makes sure to mention that his brother deserves all the credit for putting together such a lovely party. Everyone in the group gives him eerily similar knowing looks, with the exception of Nie Mingjue, who's beaming appreciatively at Meng Yao. Meng Yao accepts the compliment with grace, then turns the conversation to Nie Huaisang's latest art installation. Wen Qing whispers something to her little brother, who snickers, and Nie Huaisang gives the pair a sharp look. Jin Zixuan's puzzlement must show, because they wave him off with their fan and a smile, so Jin Zixuan bows out of the conversation to mingle some more.
When he finally locates Jiang Yanli, she is flanked by her brothers, and he reminds himself for the umpteenth time as he approaches that they're not actually going to act like her personal bodyguards the way they had when they were all younger.
"Hey, Peacock!" Wei Wuxian greets him cheekily — some things, apparently, never change. There's no malice in it now, but Jiang Yanli gives him a mock-stern look anyway. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding," he says, shoving Jin Zixuan playfully as Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. "Jin-xiong knows I'm kidding, right?"
Avian moniker aside, Jiang Yanli's brothers had restrained themselves to a single, Our sister likes you a lot. Please treat her well, soon after they began dating. When Jin Zixuan thinks about how important his siblings' happiness is to him now, he understands, a little, why they'd been so protective when they were kids. He takes pity on Wei Wuxian and shoves him back. "I do know. Hi to you too, Wei-xiong, Jiang Cheng."
After a few minutes of polite chatter, Wei Wuxian is looking around the ballroom, clearly searching for someone, so Jin Zixuan points him in the direction he'd last seen Lan Wangji. "He was headed over there, where Lan Xichen and Mo Xuanyu are talking," he explains. "They were discussing array theory, I think." Wei Wuxian thanks him and makes a beeline in that direction. Jiang Cheng excuses himself as well a little while later and heads toward the Wen and Nie group.
"I really am glad you all get along so much better these days," Jiang Yanli says, smiling. She's so beautiful, he thinks. He takes her hand, bows over it, and kisses her knuckles gently before stepping beside her and tucking it into his elbow.
"I would've fought either of them for your hand, my lady," he says, earnestly, then makes a face. "Though considering how good they both are with a sword, I'm pretty glad Lan Xichen took care of that before I got here."
Jiang Yanli's laugh has become his favorite sound in the world. He's a lucky, lucky man that he has so many opportunities to hear it. "Thank you, by the way," he says, because she deserves to know. She tilts her head in question. "For the opportunity to make you laugh. For giving me the chance to become friends with Xichen and Wen Qing and Nie Mingjue. For being you, when I texted you out of the blue all those months ago."
"I'm glad you did," she tells him. "You've made me happy and made the people I love happy by being part of our circle. And look at your family, A-Xuan — all here together tonight, because of you." It's what Mianmian was trying to tell him earlier, he realizes. Jin Zixuan had never imagined himself as the kind of person who connected others, but he has family now, and friends, people who he's chosen as his, who chose him in return. Contentment fills him up, warm and bright as a summer afternoon, and he leans his head on hers in wordless thanks where she's tucked into his side.
He's still enjoying that warm feeling when Wen Qing wanders over and hooks her chin over Jiang Yanli's other shoulder. Jin Zixuan remembers something she said at the beginning of all this and smirks. "I suppose my little siblings have turned out to be the least chaotic ones of the bunch after all, eh, Wen Qing?"
He's no sooner spoken than a loud bang sounds, and a puff of suspiciously green smoke rises from the corner where he'd last seen Mo Xuanyu with Lan Xichen. The same corner he sent Wei Wuxian to a few minutes ago. Drat. Guests are muttering and fanning the air, and Meng Yao's smile as he rushes over to investigate what had dared to disrupt their sister's elegant soiree contains far too many teeth.
Jin Zixuan looks around and finds Qin Su and Mianmian at the center of the room, blinking at each other in shock. "A-Su?" demands his sister, grabbing Mianmian's hand. Huh?
"I'm okay! But — you're me, and I'm you?" asks… apparently not Mianmian.
"I can fix it!!" yelps Mo Xuanyu.
"You had better," hisses Meng Yao.
Wen Qing collapses into giggles, and Jiang Yanli gives him a sympathetic kiss on the cheek. "Oh, A-Xuan," she says wryly, "just give them time."