He surges forth and kisses him, holding them so tightly together that he could feel Lan Xichen's heartbeat right up against his own. Soulmate. Fated person. The thought of marriage should terrify him: had he not said so many times that it was too quarrelsome? And yet he knows that Lan Xichen wouldn't quarrel with him. He would be gentle and they would talk about it as they had talked about other goings on in the city late in the evenings when they're wrapped up in each other. They fit so well and in so many ways. They'd survived so much together.

"Idiot," he says fondly after they part.

He touches foreheads with Lan Xichen, strange now, since the ribbon is held so tightly in his own hand.

"I told Lan Wangji I'd ask you."