“So, let me get this right. You spent this entire time way stressing out… because you were taking me to a park?”
“Not just a park!”
Jiang Cheng crosses his arms as he looks at Xichen. The man has a wicker picnic basket and a blanket draped over one arm as he locks his door.
“It’s… look, just- just trust me, okay?”
“Fine! it’s just- you’ve been really antsy about today!”
“It’s not like I could just ask, it’s supposed to be a surprise!”
“It’s not really surprising when the slightest unexpected noise makes you jump out of your skin.”
Xichen pouts. Jiang Cheng sighs, rolling his eyes as he takes the blanket from him.
“I’m sure whatever it is that you’ve planned is lovely.”
“Thank you, A-Cheng.”
The park isn’t one that Jiang Cheng is familiar with. Granted, his exact knowledge of parks is People’s Park, and only because it’s right by his building and he takes Louis and Lucky there for walk .
“Did you really need to go all out with the classics?”
“It’s for the aesthetic, Jiang Cheng, and I think it adds to the ambiance.”
“Yeah. The ambiance. Of a park.”
“Don’t sass me,” Xichen pouts again as he swaps the basket to his other hand and links arms with Jiang Cheng.
“Maybe I want to sass you.”
“That’s rude.”
“You never said that when I sassed you the first day we met.”
“Yes, but that’s in poor taste. I can't just ruin my first impression on the first day"
Jiang Cheng laughs at the thought of it.
To Jiang Cheng's surprise, there aren’t really many people at the park.
“Where’d you even find this place?” he asks as they enter under a large brick archway.
“Found it years ago, when I was first came in this city,” Lan Xichen explains. “When I moved back full-time, I wondered if it was just as shitty as I remembered it being.”
“You took me to a shitty park?”
“What?! No!”
“Then why’d you mention that?” Jiang Cheng laughs.
“Because,” Xichen sasses back as he gestures, “it got a major facelift in the time I was gone.”
Jiang Cheng turns to face whatever it is Xichen is showing him and gasps.
There are metal archways over the cobblestone path. Not that it’s immediately obvious, at first, because they’re covered in winding flower vines and colorful leaves.
“Holy shit, Lan Xichen, this is gorgeous,” he breathes.
“Pretty sure that was what I said when I first saw it, too.”
Jiang Cheng jogs a bit ahead to look at the archway. A lot of the space,, keeping in line with Japanifornia’s theme of an Americanized Japan , is taken up by cherry blossoms, which are currently bright pink. He can see some sort of climbing flower -morning glorys, perhaps- between it all.
“This is incredible, man.”
“Isn’t it? I come here sometimes when it gets to be too overwhelming.”
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7 Dates
FanfictionLife is hard. And for Jiang Cheng, it is so fucking damn much harder. Daily nightmares , insomnia , parent's expectations and his brother's nonstop blabbers about his boyfriend are the best prove of it. The only good thing in his life is his sister...
