Chapter Text
“Don’t you think that it’s about time for Qi-ge and A-Wu to get married?” Fan Changyu asks Xie Zheng, who is wrapped around her and half-asleep after a long, passionate night together.
Her husband cracks open one eye, skeptical. “You want them to get married?”
“Of course!” She gasps, as if astounded that the thought had never crossed his mind. “Why wouldn’t they get married? They’re both handsome men, of age, and decorated commanders in the army. It shouldn’t be difficult at all to find someone to marry them.”
Xie Zheng had stopped listening after hearing his beloved wife describe another man as handsome, and is now fully awake and glaring at her in the flickering candlelight.
Heedless of the dangers she had just roused, Fan Changyu continues on. “Of course we should do things properly, so we’ll need to find a matchmaker to set up official meetings. And, naturally, since neither of them have families, we would fill the roles in all of the ceremoni–”
The end of that sentence is abruptly swallowed as she is grabbed tightly and crushed by Xie Zheng’s hungry, firm kiss. He parts her lips and thoroughly tastes her, licking away all those unsaid words. She is breathless when they part, and he finds himself aching for her again.
“Do not–” he demands, drawing her hands above her head, “–speak of other men in our bed.”
Fan Changyu is not the least bit repentant. She only whines petulantly, wresting against his grasp. “Again?” She protests. “Was three times not enough for one night? I’m already sore.”
His answer is a sharp nip along her jaw and a rumbling growl against the flesh of her throat.
He’s quite like a beast sometimes, but Fan Changyu does not deny him because he is her beast and he’s staring down at her like a penitent at the foot of their goddess with his hair loose and eyes wild with carnal hunger.
“Once more,” she concedes in a weary sigh, despite the ache he has already buried deep within her bones.
~
The thought doesn’t go away, even after being so thoroughly wrung out by her husband that she finds her hips aching as she descends the stairs for breakfast.
Fan Changning is already at the table, a bowl of rice porridge half-eaten in front of her and her hair all in a mess. Xie Zheng is setting out another bowl, adorned with a few pieces of juicy pork and a sprinkle of scallions, when she walks in.
He has the audacity to smirk when he sees her slow, shuffling gait. That handsome face doesn’t bear a single hint of remorse for his actions just hours prior. Instead he looks quite satisfied. He pulls out a chair for her and hums a pleased “Good morning, furen.” against her cheek as he sets the food before her.
Xie Zheng had not settled for just once more. He had spent himself within her twice and then put his long fingers to use until she was biting down on the sheets to muffle her cries.
The first soft glow of morning had risen over their entwined bodies, and Fan Changyu had barely gotten a half hour’s worth of sleep the whole night.
Whatever irritation is lingering within her dissipates as she eats. He truly has learned well, in many things that cannot be spoken of at the breakfast table, but also when it comes to cooking. It’s a simple rice porridge, but it tastes absolutely divine to her hungry mouth.
“I should probably ask them first before contacting the matchmaker.” She says around a large bite. “Though, knowing their personalities we may have to convince them to agree to go through with it.”
“Hmm?” Her husband looks at her without even a hint of comprehension in his eyes. “Matchmakers? Who’s getting married?”
“...” She heaves a deep, exasperated sigh. “Xie Qi and Xie Wu, of course. We were talking about this last night, but then you–” She cuts off her words, her ears going pink as she glances over at Fan Changning, only just remembering that they are not alone.
The little girl is listening raptly to their conversation. A bite of porridge has spilled off of the spoon gripped loosely in her chubby fingers. Her eyes are sparkling with a shameless curiosity that only children can get away with without a proper scolding.
When she looks back at her husband Xie Zheng is grinning wolfishly. “What did I do, furen?” He’s teasing her. Utterly shameless.
She kicks his leg under the table, earning a grunt followed by a glare that promises she will pay for that later. (Probably in some way that will leave her with shaking legs and purpling handprints on her hips, but that is something she can worry about another time.)
“I said–” she huffs sternly, “that Qi-ge and Xiao Wu are at the proper age, shouldn’t they think about getting married soon?”
Xie Zheng shakes his head. It’s not a denial, only exasperation at his wife’s meddlesome nature. “It’s best we not interfere in their lives too much,” he pats her hand with a sure nod, “those two are grown men, they don’t need us trying to pair them up. They’ll figure it out themselves.”
Fan Changyu entirely disagrees.
One thing that she has learned in the past two years since she first pulled her future husband’s cold body from the snow is that the Xie men are all alike in only two aspects. First is that they have an innate sense of combat and martial prowess, and the second is their unyielding stubbornness.
She is entirely convinced that if she doesn’t interfere in their lives Xie Qi and Xie Wu will spend the rest of their lives unmarried simply because neither will ever make the first move to start a proper courtship.
They’re much too similar to their commander, who to this day prefers to communicate his love and affection through dark, claiming marks littered across her pale skin rather than with words.
“You don’t interfere.” She sniffs at him, shoveling another bite of creamy rice into her mouth, “I’ll take care of everything and you can just show up at the wedding.”
Xie Zheng hides his fondness behind another weary sigh. “Very well.” He doesn’t bother to try and dissuade her further. His wife is wearing a look on her face that he knows all too well, and it’s one that says she has made up her mind and nothing will change it.
He doesn’t need to worry much beyond comforting her when her scheme fails. Which it will. There’s not a shadow of a doubt in Xie Zheng’s mind that Fan Changyu will not be able to convince Xie Qi or Xie Wu to take a wife, but he doesn’t bother to try explaining to her why he knows that it won’t work.
So the three of them sit at the table and finish breakfast, each with different thoughts on their mind and a massive misunderstanding brewing between them.
Xie Zheng, naturally, had assumed that when Fan Changyu said “Xie Qi and Xie Wu should get married.” that she meant they should get married to other people. Of course that is what he would assume, because there was no such common thing in their world as a man marrying another man.
Having been raised in the army, Xie Zheng was well aware of what kind of things happened in the darkness of war when women weren’t around and the soldiers would turn to each other for physical comforts. It’s not a ghastly thing in his eyes for two men to embrace one another, it’s simply rare.
Those comforts rarely extend beyond the battlefield; beyond war camps and desperate nights. Some men have been known to retain friendships with their wartime companions, but much more often those men return home to take wives, father children, and never speak to each other again.
So, yes, Xie Zheng believed that his wife’s plan was to secure two lovely brides and bring them into the Xie household to be loving companions for his two most trusted followers.
It never crossed his mind, not even once, that Fan Changyu’s grand plan was not to bring in brides, but to marry Xie Qi and Xie Wu to each other.