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"The sweet treat you gave me... What was it made of?"

Asking this simple question makes Shen Wei's heart race in a way that only the fiercest battles have ever managed to do before.

"Sugar?" Kunlun replies and shrugs, brow furrowed for a moment before an easy smile lights up his face. "Would you like another one? I still have a few left."

"Oh." There's no way Shen Wei could figure out what to say to this offer right now. He tucks Kunlun's question away for later, warm and soft and only a bit panic-inducing, and presses on. "I meant— I just thought it tasted like some type of fruit."

Shen Wei has spent a week rehearsing every single outcome of this conversation he could think of, and yet somehow he didn't expect for it to be immediately derailed by Kunlun's generosity. He probably should have. Kunlun would give Shen Wei anything, which somehow only makes all of this even more nerve-racking.

"Ah! Peach," Kunlun answers, and Shen Wei's entire world comes to a halt. He almost misses the frantic heartbeat from a few moments ago — now it feels like his heart has disappeared entirely, dissolved into some kind of uncontained, confused warmth, and stole his breath too.

"Technically, I guess?" Kunlun continues. "It's so artificial that it's hard to tell— Shen Wei-ah, are you okay?"

Shen Wei nods, his voice also sucked into the stunned, blissful void.

What is this? When Kunlun first gave him the treat, Shen Wei's immediate question was met with an instruction on how to lick it. Too overcome with the unexpected intimacy of the act, he didn't clarify what he meant — what it was, not how to eat it. Kunlun's gaze was on him like a touch; as if he couldn't bear to look away, as if Shen Wei was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.

Shen Wei should have asked again regardless, but he hadn't, and then the courage gradually slipped away from him as their late night conversations kept bringing them closer together without ever quite crossing any obvious lines.

He spent all that time drowning in hope and self-consciousness, thoughts flipping between an absolute certainty that his guess was right and an equal certainty that it was wrong. The treat's flavor was puzzling enough even when he could still taste it; the memory of it even more so. It had to have been peach. It couldn't possibly have been peach. He should stop the wishful thinking — it's not what Kunlun meant. It is what Kunlun meant, and now he must be getting impatient waiting for Shen Wei's reply.

Of course there are no fresh peaches readily available anywhere near the battlefield, but it's not as if anyone really thinks of these things here. It's not as if anyone would have any use for them other than as food. And then Kunlun brought his strange preserves from his faraway home. And now he wants to give another one to Shen Wei, as if that one wasn't enough. As if Shen Wei somehow deserves even more than what the custom says. The generosity was overwhelming enough even before Kunlun confirmed that it was—

Shen Wei's face is flaming, his thoughts scrambling, and he stands up hurriedly and turns away. This is not the right way to react, he knows that, but— He already hadn't reacted properly. It's been a week and he gave no reply. And now he needs to remember how to breathe before—

"Xiao Wei?"

Kunlun sounds really worried now. His hand is on Shen Wei's shoulder, and that's nearly as overwhelming as the endearment — Shen Wei is still not quite used to it, but he already knows that he wants Kunlun to call him Xiao Wei for the rest of his life. And now he could do it— The world is spinning and Shen Wei sits back down on the rock, Kunlun kneeling down in front of him.

"Peach?" Shen Wei whispers. His voice still works. That's good. He really needs to start using it.

"What's wrong?" Kunlun puts his hands on Shen Wei's knees and looks up at him with so much concern that the all-consuming warmth floods Shen Wei's chest all over again. "Are you wounded?"

Shen Wei shakes his head.

"Drank something suspicious?" Kunlun won't get any less worried if Shen Wei doesn't reply. He needs to find his voice again—

"No. No, I'm fine."

"Shen Wei-ah, you're panicking and not making much sense. I know you always say you're fine but I don't think—"

"I am. I promise," Shen Wei doesn't mean to interrupt this abruptly, but now that he knows that the gift was a peach, there is no time for any of this. He needs to finally make everything clear. "Kunlun— My answer is yes."

His heart is back where it belongs, thudding against his ribcage, trying to escape his chest again.

"You mean yes, you are wounded?" Kunlun's hands are suddenly on Shen Wei's stomach and sides, frantically searching for injuries.

"No." Shen Wei covers one of Kunlun's hands with his own, shakes his head, and hopes his smile is reassuring enough. "You— You gave me a peach. My answer is yes."

The warmth he's been drowning in turns into a fire. The anticipation makes him brave enough to look at Kunlun— Who takes his hands off of Shen Wei and frowns up at him.

"Shen Wei," his voice is a sigh, soft and gentle, but it almost sounds like Shen Wei did something that hurt him. "Is there some Dixing custom I woefully misunderstood?"

No enemy has ever come close to killing Shen Wei, but this surely will.

He just said yes to an offer Kunlun didn't mean to make. An offer he didn't make. And now Shen Wei is going to have to explain what exactly he said yes to.

Kunlun is going to be so gentle when he breaks Shen Wei's heart. He's going to be so kind when he starts avoiding Shen Wei, when he never looks at him the same way again. Just as gentle and kind as he is right now, his hand back on Shen Wei's knee, his gaze so tender it makes Shen Wei's eyes sting.

"Xiao Wei?" Kunlun's voice is barely a whisper. He reaches out, the palm of his hand on Shen Wei's cheek, fingertips caressing his hair.

Shen Wei is a warrior. He has courage enough not to lie.

He slowly takes Kunlun's hand away from his face first. Kunlun is not going to want it there when he finds out what Shen Wei wanted from him. What he still wants, selfishly, hopelessly.

"Yes. There is a custom," Shen Wei says, dry and matter-of-fact. "A peach—" Even his Black-Cloaked Envoy's voice catches, betrays him for a moment, but he perseveres. "Giving someone a peach is a marriage offer. I know now that you didn't mean it. And it must be unpleasant for you to know that I would have said yes. If you no longer want to be my friend— If you no longer want anything to do with me, I will understand."

Kunlun is looking down and Shen Wei can't see his face. Every second that passes feels like an hour, and Shen Wei would rather face Kunlun's outright rejection than this silence— Is it disgust, or pity, or—

And then Kunlun's shoulders start shaking with laughter, and Shen Wei's body leaps up on its own accord, trying to get away.

"No. No no no," Kunlun reaches for him, hastily grabbing both of his hands, and shakes his head, face still hidden under his hair. "Xiao Wei, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at myself, and I'm just— I'm just happy. Shen Wei-ah, you would really say yes?"

"I— I did." Shen Wei has no idea what to make of any of it, and then Kunlun looks up at him again, eyes bright with joy and unshed tears, and something inside Shen Wei can no longer be contained. He cradles Kunlun's face in his hands, leans in and kisses him right on the lips.

Their noses collide clumsily before Kunlun angles his head and kisses him back, lips parted, letting Shen Wei in. It's tender and desperate in equal measure, their fingers tangled in each other's hair, Kunlun's beard rough against Shen Wei's lips and chin, and it's so much more perfect than any kiss Shen Wei has ever imagined.

Shen Wei slides down from the rock onto Kunlun's lap, framing him between his thighs. He doesn't want this to stop, he can't stop, not until his lungs are burning from lack of air. They pull away, Kunlun's hair a mess, his lips shiny and swollen, and Shen Wei knows he must look the same. Not even a mask would be able to hide it, and he's startled to realize that he wouldn't put it back on even if it could. He wants Kunlun to see him like this.

And then Kunlun leans in for a different kiss, slow and reverent, sweeter than the peach treat, and this is what undoes Shen Wei completely, his body folding into Kunlun's embrace as he lets himself feel. He doesn't understand everything, but he hasn't been rejected. He's held, he's cherished, he's loved; he knows that without a shadow of a doubt.

Still, when they pull away again and Shen Wei's brain can really catch up, he has to add, "You didn't know what it meant— It's not binding."

"Now I do," Kunlun's easy, triumphant grin makes Shen Wei huff a soft laugh. And then his breath catches all over again when Kunlun fishes out another treat from one of his pockets. "And now that I know... Would you like another one? I still have a few left." Kunlun repeats his earlier words, and as brightly as he is smiling, this is not a joke at all.

Shen Wei nods, and his ability to form words hasn't left him this time, so he adds solemnly, "Yes."

Kunlun slips the treat past Shen Wei's parted lips, still wet from the kisses. The tender, deliberate slowness of the gesture, so unlike the first time, is almost as overwhelming as the flavor — even sweeter than he remembered, and maybe not quite like any peaches he's familiar with, but recognizable enough.

Kunlun doesn't stop smiling at him, doesn't stop looking at him like he's everything — how is Shen Wei ever going to get used to this? — and Shen Wei really wants to kiss him again, but he doesn't want to part with the betrothal gift. He presses their foreheads together instead, breathing him in, and finds out that Kunlun can't resist him either — he kisses the corner of Shen Wei's lips first, angling the stick away, and then continues trailing soft kisses up and down his cheeks, his eyelids, his jaw, until Shen Wei melts like the sugar in his mouth.

"Xiao Wei," Kunlun murmurs against his skin. "We may have to wait until the next time we meet. But it's going to be so perfect, I'm sure of that. We'll invite Da Qing and— You just wait for me, yeah?"

Kunlun has never said this much about the future that he seems to know. Their future. Shen Wei has been collecting scraps of information here and there, saving them like that piece of shiny golden paper, but this is more than all of them combined.

It seems like Kunlun knows that he has said too much, and Shen Wei doesn't pry. He just lets himself be kissed, pulling Kunlun closer, drowning in the sweetness.

His heart is so full that it's about to burst. If Da Qing will be there, it can't be very long until they meet again. But that's not even the most important part, is it? He would wait thousands of years for this. He would wait millions of years.