grocery boy yibo/fruit market yibo AU

xz cooks well so of course he buys more expensive fresh produce, and once he buys fruit from yibo's stall he keeps going back ofc

who wouldn't????

xz is a modern man, however, and he knows hitting on someone in a place where they have to keep customers happy is a terrible idea, so does nothing other than be friendly

but then they run into each other elsewhere! or maybe they're unknowingly both friends with the same person and finally meet each other properly at a party/gathering of some kind

or OR OR a friend takes him out to see this local dance group perform and this one guy in particular is incredible and holy CRAP that's the guy he buys fruit from!!!!

xz lingers afterwards, because of course he does, and because it's a local community performance the dancers come out afterwards and yibo does a double take at the guy who buys all the lemons being in the audience

they talk, a little awkwardly at first - yibo's yibo, and they don't know each other v well and the guy's a customer - but yibo's also not blind to how attractive xz is and how kind he's always been (he's seen him helping aunties with their groceries)

and xz finds out the market is just one of yibo's jobs, that dance is yibo's calling but a family situation meant he has to stay home and help support them (he's a good boy) so he dances whenever he has the opportunity, between that and work he has zero free time

xz feels it's a real shame that because of his responsibilities yibo can't pursue dance professionally, it's clearly what he was meant to do and he just as clearly adores it. but it's yibo's life and yibo's choices and he respects that

xz still comes to the market every week and they get a little closer, and whenever he hears yibo's doing a community performance anywhere he always goes to watch loses himself in the strength, power and talent in yibo's movements, the stories he tells with his body

they always talk afterwards, and then it always becomes a private talk afterwards, often for hours, even when yibo is clearly exhausted, even when xz tries to leave early and yibo insists they keep talking

on one particular night yibo literally falls asleep in xz's car and xz knows they can't keep doing this - not this way, anyway. yibo has things he needs to do and his health has to come first

he quietly makes enquiries and discovers that yibo is left to his own devices at the market AND the people he works for at that job are not actual assholes and yibo won't get in trouble for what xz has planned

he can't be there every day yibo's there, but whenever he can he turns up at the market stall with a folding chair and a book. His intention had just been to sit there quietly reading, being available whenever yibo might have a few minutes

BUT of course yibo is comfortable with him now and jokes with him, teases him, roasts him - between keeping customers happy, of course. When it's busy xz gets roped in, of course, and learns exactly what hard work a customer service job is

(he deals with customers in his design work, too, and though he's dealt with some assholes in his time, it's still nothing to what yibo can face on a daily basis)

anyway, xz has been randomly visiting yibo at the market whenever he can over the course of about a month, aware that he's been smiling more than ever before, and he's helping yibo pack up the stall one day when they reach for the same thing and their hands touch

xz goes to joke/apologise but then he looks at yibo and from the intense stare it was obviously not an accident.
Yibo doesn't move his hand. "Thank you."
xz doesn't move his, either, though he does frown some. "For what?"
And yibo kisses him.

xz kisses him back despite the surprise, intent on not wasting his opportunity, and the woman two stalls down who's been not-so-subtlely encouraging his affections starts laughing

they kiss in the market stall, and then they kiss in the truck when everything's away, and then they kiss against xz's car when yibo insists on walking him to it, and then they kiss in xz's car until yibo has to leave for his second job

three days later, yibo brings xz home to meet his parents

(obviously, this is a 'homophobia? what homophobia?' universe)