#Except quite likely they will get distracted by ducklings on their walk to the alter and wander off

[lilapplesheadcannons]

The Gift

"The Gift of Magi" was Lan Xichen's favourite short story to read in college. And he knows how disappointed shufu would be to know that, given he is a professor of Chinese classics.

He knows love can be expressed in many ways. Some expressed love in buying impractical, expensive trinkets like young Della and Jim. Some expressed love in silent yearning from distance and unshed tears like his brother. So he knows love can break your heart.

He had seen his father, exhausted after many sleepless nights in the hospital, falling asleep while sitting down mother's bedside; his head resting on mother's chest and mother looking down with unlimited tenderness. So love can heal your broken heart, too.

He knows shufu keeps a photo hidden in his workdrawer that he only accidentally saw him taking out. Shufu never visits France even if he gets invited to a conference there. So maybe love can be expressed by letting go as much as by holding on?

He knows Da-ge and A-Yao's love language is arguing about anything and everything under the sky, including and not limited to the ideal shower temperature to the impact of the next budget policy on their company. But sometimes A-Yao likes to lie down with his face hidden in Da-ge's lap, and Da-ge softly massages his head; so love is maybe both loud and silent?

His brother-in-law, a tall man standing proud and bold, seems to relax and melt into a softer, smaller person anytime Wangji is nearby. Jiang Yanli stores her love in spiceboxes, writes her poems in recipe books, and laddles it out in white china bowls with gold trim. So love is being able to trust the one you love, as well as taking care of them?

A-Sang tends to whine and demand attention from everyone he loves. And Wen Qionglin honestly doesn't seem too upset at being asked to run random, petty errands. The boy has an honest face. If he didn't like being tapped by A-Sang's fan, Xichen would be able to tell.

He also knows the impossible boy A-Yao's little cousin is dating. God knows A-Yao came as close to committing murder at that time as he ever will. But Lan Xichen has seen the boy strutting like a puffed up pigeon getting drenched in rain, while holding an umbrella over A-Yao's cousin's head. So maybe love is the desire to protect as well?

Lan Xichen likes to think he knows what love is. He just wishes he knew how to tell that to the man sleeping beside him. The angry, sad man who thinks because his own parents couldn't manage to love each other, there's no such thing as love. The man who thinks himself to be undeserving, incapable of love. And in the morning, when he wakes up and rushes out of the room, Lan Xichen will stop him. He will take a deep breath, look into his eyes and tell him that he loves him. That he has broken the first and the only rule of their relationship and has fallen in love with him.

And maybe, if he's very lucky, the man will return the gift.