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Fan Zherui tightens his legs around Bai Zongyi’s waist, and lets out an encouraging groan when Zongyi presses him further down onto the table. Their hips grind up against each other in a lazy rhythm, and Zherui arches up and—
—jumps, when a loud clap rings out through the bakery’s kitchen. Zherui looks past Zongyi to see Ai Di swaggering in as if he owns the place.
“Alright, break it up!” Ai Di says, smirking. “Such fucking animals, people cook on that table, y’know.”
For a moment, Zherui considers dragging Zongyi in for the most showy, spiteful snog he can manage. But Zongyi is already stepping away, an adorably embarrassed look on his face, so Zherui settles for sitting up properly and flipping Ai Di the bird with both hands.
Unexpectedly, Ai Di lights up. “Fucking finally!” he crows and practically leaps at Zongyi to throw an arm around his shoulder. “Bai Zongyi, you finally put a ring on it! Memorised your sappy little speech, then?”
“Actually, I—” Zongyi begins, a smile growing on his face, but Ai Di is already ducking back out of the kitchen and calling out, “Yo, Chen Yi, get your ass in here, get a load of this!”
Zherui meets Zongyi’s eyes, both of them grinning helplessly. He fusses with the metal band on his ring finger just to watch Zongyi’s eyes drop down to it, to watch Zongyi’s smile grow even wider. “Did you practice your speech with Ai Di?” Zherui asks with a mock pout. “Did Ai Di get to hear you promising to love and treasure him even before I did?”
Zongyi rolls his eyes, but doesn’t get to reply before Ai Di strides back in dragging Chen Yi behind him. “Look,” Ai Di proclaims, waving at Zherui’s left hand, “our A-Rui is finally marrying out and becoming the stay-at-home wifey he’s always dreamed of being!”
“Congratulations,” Chen Yi says drily, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards.
“Hey, who says I’m the wife?” Zherui demands, holding his hand out to Zongyi (and wiggling his fingers so that the ring catches the light).
Zongyi rolls his eyes again, but takes his hand to help him off the table. “Well, I’m the one who proposed, so—”
“I was going to propose too! I have the ring at home already, you just beat me to it.”
Zongyi grins down at him, still holding his hand. “Too bad. Wifey.”
“Yeah, you snooze, you lose,” Ai Di says while rummaging in the fridge. He turns around with one of the remaining display slices of cake in his hand and waves it. “Anyway, Bai Zongyi’s the one bringing home the bacon, so clearly that makes him the man.”
“I’m older,” Zherui protests, as Chen Yi quietly digs out a fork and hands it to Ai Di. “If we’re going by stupid things like that.”
“That just makes you a cradle-robber,” Ai Di replies, snickering. “You’re also shorter—”
“So are you!” Zherui shoots back. “Gonna be a good wife for your big boss Chen Yi then?”
“Fuck off,” Ai Di says around a mouthful of cake, while behind him Chen Yi gets a constipated look on his face that Zherui interprets as someone discovering that they have a new kink while in public. “Anyway, the one who’s always taking it”—Ai Di puts his fork down just to make an exuberantly illustrative hand gesture—“is obviously the wife, right?”
“How— That’s—” Zherui turns to Zongyi. “Do you have to tell him everything?”
Zongyi has the grace to look a little sheepish, even though he shrugs and says, “He asked.”
Zherui narrows his eyes. “Well, I can ask too. So does Ai Di bottom for Chen Yi, or what?”
Zherui doesn’t expect Zongyi to actually have an answer—that information leak between Zongyi and Ai Di is often one-sided, unfortunately—but Zongyi doesn’t even hesitate before replying, “They switch it up, but the one who bottoms the most is actually—”
“This is stupid,” Chen Yi interrupts, while Ai Di smirks around his mouthful of cake. “Look, obviously A-Rui is the wife because he’s marrying into the Bai family. Right?”
“I...” Zherui trails off, careless words erased by a sudden pulse of longing. He technically still has an apartment of his own, but he’s been basically living with the Bai family—with his in-laws—for the last few months. Of course, getting to wake up every day to Zongyi’s beloved face, to sleep every night in the warmth of Zongyi’s arms, that is a large part of why he’s more or less moved in. But there’s also a part of his heart that gives a quiet flutter of delight every time Zongyi’s sister greets him with a ‘Zherui-ge, you’re back!’, every time Zongyi’s father smiles indulgently at him when Zherui calls him ‘dad’. A part of his heart that already thinks of that family as his, of that house as home.
So all he can say is, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m marrying into the Bai family.”
Zongyi squeezes his hand, face soft and knowing as if he can tell exactly how close Zherui is to crying. “Yeah,” he says, rubbing his thumb over Zherui’s fingers, over the ring that means Zherui belong to him, belongs in his family. “You are.”
And because Zongyi is a perfect man, he looks away before Zherui can melt completely under his gaze and lose what’s left of his reputation. “Okay, Ai Di, that means you’re my best man,” Zongyi says to Ai Di, who freezes, cake halfway to his mouth. “And my sister will be Zherui’s maid of honour.”
Ai Di’s face shifts through half a dozen soft, startled expressions. The bite of cake slides dangerously off his fork, and almost falls off before Chen Yi plucks the fork out of Ai Di’s slack fingers to stick the cake right in Ai Di’s open mouth. Ai Di closes his mouth and starts chewing automatically, then jerks back to life after a moment.
“Fuck off,” Ai Di says half-heartedly, swiping the fork back from Chen Yi, who gives it up with a silent look of unbearable fondness—unbearable to Zherui, at least, who still hasn’t gotten used to seeing Chen Yi look openly, if subtly...well, happy.
Ai Di clears his throat and looks away. He throws a light punch at Zongyi’s shoulder, as if that can distract them all from the way the tips of his ears are turning red. “What the hell, Bai Zongyi,” he blusters, “I don’t remember being asked to be your...your best man. Have I said I’m doing it, huh?”
Zongyi huffs out a quiet laugh. “Ai Di,” he says solemnly, “will you do me the great honour of being my—”
“Oh, fuck off,” Ai Di says, shoving Zongyi in the shoulder and grinning, “now it sounds like you’re proposing to me.”
“No one is proposing to you except me,” Chen Yi says calmly, and Zherui lets out a gleeful ‘hah’ at the way Ai Di’s head whips around to stare at Chen Yi in wide-eyed, naked astonishment. He glances at Zongyi to share his amusement and finds Zongyi already looking back, and then the both of them are laughing; the ring on his finger glitters and glitters as their still-clasped hands shake with shared joy.