Xingyun Oneshots

119 - For Just One Day, Let's Only Think About Love (Happy B-Day Xingqiu!)

IT'S XINGQIU'S BIRTHDAY OMG EOFJEOFOENFEKFJEJRN

Autumn is one of Xingqiu's favorite seasons.

It's the season that captures all the bells and whistles of a warm, cozy aesthetic, with browning leaves burning sacred reds and vibrant oranges that put sunsets the shame - the kind of weather that fluctuates between just warm enough and just cold enough and the kind of weather he gets to pull out rich, thick scarves and fuzzy leg warmers for.

It's the time of the year where Xiangling starts making pumpkin-themed foods and asks him and their other friends to help dig the insides out of pumpkins, all of them sitting around the kitchen scooping out seeds and pumpkin guts while Xingqiu tries desperately not to get his sleeves dirty.

It's when Chongyun can finally start relaxing after the sweltering summer, Gaming starts thinking of performances for Moonchase, and business finally starts to cool down for the Feiyun Commerce Guild - a perfect time for him to crawl up in front of the fireplace in his home with a good, warm tea and stack of novels just waiting to be bookmarked and read until they're worn and well loved.

...Or at least, that would be what he's doing throughout the fall months, if it weren't for his brother's wedding coming upon everyone and making the Feiyun Commerce Guild a particular hot spot at the moment, one that Xingqiu does well to avoid.

Since he's the youngest in the family, he thankfully doesn't have any big responsibilities pertaining to the wedding itself - but he certainly has to take on the lion's share of the business itself while everyone else is trying to get ready for the big day.

He's ever so thankful for Chongyun's help as of late, staying up with him when he needs to work on documents, go with him to meet with businessmen and women, and even just checking up on him to take him out for a meal or tea to get him out of his room and relax for a bit.

It's only a week out from the wedding now, and Xingqiu wakes up to one of the house servants at his door giving him a note from his father telling him he needs to pick a plus one for the wedding amidst his busy week. Great.

It was no surprise he had to - after all, a wedding for one of the members of the Feiyun Commerce Guild was no doubt going to be another big event with keeping up appearances and making sure everyone is seen to be presentable - and of course, he's sure he's going to have many people in fancy suits and dresses asking him about his own future in the business and whoever the lovely young lady is that he decides to bring.

To be truthful though, he's really not all that jazzed about asking one of his female friends to come with him. It's not their burden to deal with pushy business people.

His mother and father are naturally already known as an influential married couple, his brother of course is the newlywed to his fiancé, and that just leaves Xingqiu, who's never shown any sort of interest in anyone or been seen particularly chatting, nevermind flirting with anyone with romantic interest.

...Well, anyone that people expect. He's more than happy to chat up and flirt with Chongyun, it's a miracle no one notices. Maybe it's not so much the fact that people don't notice, as people don't want to notice.

Nobody wants to believe that when he does a double take on the street or gets distracted staring out the window of his study room while a lecturer tried to get his attention, it's not because there's a pretty girl walking by - it's likely because Chongyun gave him a little wave and a smile, and Xingqiu gets all kinds of flustered over just seeing him. Truly the downfalls of being hopelessly smitten.

For this wedding in particular though, he's stuck on wanting to bring Chongyun despite knowing how people will react, because he knows he's next in line - the focus will be put onto him to have a girlfriend and get married after his brother, in between people then jumping on to asking his elder brother about having kids.