Meng Yao marries into the Lan. Everything changes.

The first time Vander meets Silco, Vander's been working in the mines for a little over a month. It's hard work and the days are long, but he's suited to it. It feels good to work until his muscles ache and then spend the nights laughing and drinking with friends.

He's on level three, helping with the cave-in, when someone yanks the back of his collar, pulling hard enough that he's surprised into taking a few steps backwards.

"Buffoon!" is snarled beside him – just as a cart careens past him, right where he was standing. "It wouldn't have stopped for you."

"Thanks," Vander says, turning to his saviour. He's young, like Vander. Black hair pulled under his hard hat, sharp nose, and the prettiest blue eyes Vander's ever seen.

Lan Xichen is in love with his very close friend, Meng Yao, who is currently working and studying and trying to gain his father's respect, and doesn't have time to date anyone. Lan Xichen is devoted and waiting, but all of his friends and family keep trying to set him up with much nicer, more respectable young men.

Podfic of A Respectable Young Man by out_there.

"He's finishing his residency this year," Aunt Mai says, with a conspiring glance at her neighbour, Mrs Yueng. "He's studying to become an orthopaedic surgeon."

"And he's very handsome," Mrs Yueng adds, pulling out her phone. She turns it on and hands it over. The phone background shows a young man in dark green scrubs, smiling toothily at the camera. He has a lean face with kind eyes; Xichen can imagine that would be a comforting face in a hospital.

"Very handsome. That's what I said when I saw his photo," Aunt Mai says. "I said he's very handsome, almost as handsome as my nephew who's still single, despite graduating law school second in his class. It's such a shame."

Xichen smiles and nods and tries not to crumble under the avalanche of family pressure.

***

Lan Xichen is in love with his very close friend, Meng Yao, who is currently working and studying and trying to gain his father's respect, and doesn't have time to date anyone. Lan Xichen is devoted and waiting, but all of his friends and family keep trying to set him up with much nicer, more respectable young men.

"You're not a Nie," Nie Mingjue snarls as he strides past Meng Yao. "You shouldn't wear those braids."

He's right, Meng Yao knows it. He has no right to them but they serve a purpose. It's a spiteful act of disrespect to a clan that threw him out, the kind of bitter pettiness that Wen Ruohan encourages. But the true reason is that every morning it gives him a few moments where he can pretend he isn't here. He can watch his reflection in the bronze mirror, in his robes of dark grey, and remember Nie Huaisang teaching him, being somewhere that almost felt safe. (The idea of home has always carried some danger.)

How Could He Turn Down A Banana In Distress?
Alec Lightwood never thought that he'd become the pretend fiancé of a banana-wearing storeowner! Yet how could he refuse smouldering Magnus Bane, the man under the costume, when he kissed him so sweetly— and so thoroughly—in the spaghetti aisle of the supermarket?

His golden brown gaze implored Alec to play the role of lover to show up his ex-fiancé. But remembering the kisses they shared were supposed to be pretend became more difficult, when all Alec wanted to do was to make love to the appealing Magnus! Was the banana's proposal turning into something…real?

(Summary amended from "The Virgin's Proposal" by Shirley Jump.)

Jayne leaned over Mal in the pilot’s chair, one hand gripping the frame of the cockpit windows as he craned his neck up to get a good look at the underbelly of the ship. In barely legible lettering on the side was the ship’s name: Utopia. Jayne appreciated the irony of that, proving that he wasn’t as stupid as he liked to pretend.

"You know how you said there was a storm coming in today," Casey says when Dana answers, "and I should change my flight to Saturday?"

"Did you change your flight to Saturday?"

"I did not."

***

Prompt based on Between Strangers by Linda Conrad:
Rescuing a stranded father and child from a raging blizzard hadn’t been part of Dan Rydell’s plans. Yet he couldn’t abandon Casey McCall. And ended up getting snowed in with him, tasting those fiery kisses.