flight of a one-winged dove by bloodletter
Talking at someone is only fun for so long. Thatâs all being a sect leader is: talking and talking to people bound by courtesy to listen to you. Itâs so fucking dull. A relief, then, to face oneâs equal, and no less an old friend who is inclined to interrupt you whenever you ramble. He likes it. Itâs one of Jiang Chengâs best qualities.
In the years after Guanyin Temple, Nie Huaisang attends to unfinished business.
Jiang Cheng blinks. âDammit, they do think youâre dating one of us! I hate it when Wei Wuxian is right.â
âExcuse me?â Nie Huaisang gives him an incredulous look. âFirst of all, they think Iâm dating you, and if anything, theyâre getting more aggressive!â
(or, the one in which Jiang Cheng has too many relatives, not enough patience, goes through a brother-divorce and finds out he has a boyfriend - in that order, more or less.)
Ponder the Manner of Things by Pip (Moirail)
Itâs not that Jiang Cheng canât do a quadruple flip followed by a triple toeloop. Itâs that his mother seems to think thatâs still not good enough.
Jiang Cheng is grateful that Huaisang doesnât have the same kind of family life that he does, all - messy with expectations and cravings for closeness and nothing but vague filial piety where love is meant to be.
a matter of time and organ donation by nev_longbottom
This is it. The call heâs been waiting for. His brother had âan accidentâ or âdied in his sleepâ or some other lie to cover up the murder.
âPlease, Mingjue is missing. He got into one of his moods and he was gone when I came back from grocery shopping. Heâs not answering his phone. I donât know if he left or was kidnapped or if something else happened. Huaisang, please, if youâve heard anything,â Meng Yao begs.
Nie Huaisang hunts his brotherâs killer.
no tip necessary by tattletold
With all the nervousness of a virgin in a whorehouse, Jiang Cheng closes the door behind himself and enters, sitting on the low seat across from the escort. The pretty young man keeps his face hidden behind the delicate fan, and Jiang Cheng thinks for a moment that he recognizes the design painted onto it now that heâs closer.
Itâs only when he lowers the fan and opens his eyes, wide, does Jiang Cheng paralyze with realization.
They speak at the same time in equally horrified tones.
Your Place in the Family of Things by raisedbyhyenas
No matter what happens, no matter the circumstances, Wei Wuxian will always leave and Jiang Cheng will always get stuck trying to rebuild from whateverâs left.
In which Jiang Cheng makes friends; gets a cat; begins to rebuild a relationship; and maybe, possibly, potentially, learns a little bit how to be happy.
sigh yourself to sleep by merthurlin
âLet me take care of you, A-Cheng.â
No oneâno one has ever said that, not to Jiang Cheng. He wasnât a very sickly child, true, but the few times he remembered being sick it was neverâhe had a-jie, and later on he had Wei Wuxian, for what it was worth, but he neverâ
Theyâre in a forest, it seems just the two of them.
âYou have to be patient,â Nie Huaisang says, âI once waited for three days to catch a sparrow.â
âThree days?â Jiang Cheng replies, sceptical. He canât imagine Nie Huaisang having the attention span for that.
âItâs not that hard,â Nie Huaisang says, âif you know what they want, and find a way to get it for them.â
[JC stumbles across an array and gets physically de-aged to be 16/17. NHS kindly offers his help to an old friend, but things⊠escalate.]
To Distraction by isozyme
Itâs the third night of Yunmengâs kite festival celebrations. Nie Huaisang has come visiting, eager to partake in the food, the arts, and Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng wants to forget. Nie Huaisang has some new lube and wants to see if he can put his whole fist in somebodyâs ass.
Lights, Camera, Kiss by MissMagus
When Nie Huaisang gets paired with straight porn star Jiang Cheng for a five-part series, heâs sure it will be an utter disaster. Until the cameras start rolling and their chemistry alights like wildfire.
(Or, the five times Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng have sex for their job, and the first time they have sex outside of it.)
Only the Shallow by hamburglar
When Nie Huaisang gets bored and convinces Jiang Cheng to make out with him, heâs probably not expecting to still be dealing with the guy 16 years later.
OR the story where Jiang Cheng goes into: the Cloud Recesses, denial, some bushes, the private porn library at the Unclean Realm, and subspace.
Blind for Love by manamune
Jiang Cheng is poisoned with an aphrodisiac and needs to orgasm repeatedly in order to flush it from his system.
The first person he thinks of going to for help is Nie Huaisang, who does what any good friend would do: he shoves his three decades worth of feelings for Jiang Cheng deep into the recesses of his mind, locks them up so he can pretend they donât exist, and then fucks him so hard that he passes out.
Descending by lightningwaltz
âI want to⊠to not be embarrassed.â
âTo not be embarrassed during what?â
âDuring sex.â There. Jiang Cheng can say it. âIn general. Also with you right now.â
âWhen did you become so authoritative?â Jiang Cheng wants to sound irked, but canât quite manage anything beyond nervous curiosity.
dark water by Morgan (duckwhatduck)
There are words, somewhere, for this. Words that would put a shape to the thing that sits between them, would seal their understanding. There are words for sympathy, for friendship, for understanding, for that touch, for this feeling.
Jiang Cheng can feel them, somewhere, fluttering formless at the back of his throat, squirming under his ribcage, but he cannot grasp them. They swim beneath the surface, fish in muddy water - and like fish, they will dart away if he grabs for them incautiously, and leave him nothing but cold splashes and grit.
Or: Why talk about things when you could fuck about it instead?
never knew i was a dancer by isozyme
âWhatâs a stone butch and why arenât they real?â Jiang Cheng asks, too buzzed to care too much about not being up on lesbian culture.
Huaisang pats Jiang Cheng on the no-manâs-land between her boobs and her shoulder. âYouâre so useless, Jiang Cheng. A stone butch is a fictional hottie who doesnât make you do any work at all, just wants to give head and fuck you stupid on her strap.â
âFictional?â Jiang Cheng echoes, having - not a moment, per se, but sort of a problem where her thoughts are going too fast for her poor drunken brain to keep up with.
âNobody actually wants to fuck a chick whoâs too lazy to eat you out after,â Huaisang mumbles.
After leaving Wei Ying and Lan Zhanâs bachelorette party, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang decide to experiment with some outdated stereotypical lesbian sex roles.
âNie-zongzhu makes the most sense,â Sect Leader Yao nods sagely, to murmurs of assent across the Jin Sectâs gold gilded banquet hall. Jin Ling, clad in opulent robes that look somewhat comical on a boy of sixteen, inclines his head as his scribe makes a notation, and the noise rises as sect leaders pat themselves and each other on the back for a decision well made.
Jiang Cheng groans and downs his cup of wine in one go.
In which the Sect Leaders elect a new Chief Cultivator.
shadow eternal by rynleaf
âYou want me to distract the Chief Cultivator from the Annual Cultivation Conference, so you and other sect leaders can⊠what. Sign contracts without adult supervision?â
âIf Jiang-zongzhu is amenable,â Sect Leader Ouyang repeats with a nod.
Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose. The pressure he felt building behind his eyes all morning is swiftly coalescing into a bitch of a headache. âJust what do you all think Iâm capable of?â
Sect Leader Ouyang bows with a cheerful smile. âWe have utmost faith in Sandu Shengshouâs abilities.â
In which a night hunt ends in disaster, Jiang Cheng catches a glimpse of Nie Huaisangâs heart, and feelings are discussed after a certain fashion.
Four Days in Lanling by halotolerant
Nie Huaisang looks at him. âYou are confusing me, Clan Leader Jiang, perhaps I misunderstand, butâŠâ
âYou didnât misunderstand. You donât misunderstand. You understand all of it.â For six months Jiang Cheng has been mulling this over, and now with Nie Huaisang in front of him he canât figure out if he most wants to knock him down or kneel at his feet. What he does is try and breathe. Clench his hands at his sides. âAnd now I am going to ask you to do something for me. You have to do something for me. You have to help Jin Ling.â
Lean for Love Forever by Pip (Moirail)
Having a crush on your roommate is really embarrassing, except thatâs apparently the opposite of a problem. Jiang Cheng canât deny thatâs pretty convenient.
Wei Ying holds it up, a series of straps and buckles and velcro and wow, really a lot of leather. It has absolutely no conceivable form beyond tangled.
Nie Huaisang opens the door at exactly the moment that Wei Ying holds the thing up to Jiang Chengâs chest, as if heâs trying to imagine how exactly it would fit onto a person, and it falls into a tangled pile between them while they stare at Huaisang in mild mortification.
acquired momentum by mongrelmind
Had Madam Yu known that this is where her son would end up, she would have gouged his eyes out with her bracelet before he made the grave mistake of looking in the direction of Nie Huaisang.
in which Nie Huaisang has an art show, Jiang Cheng is begrudgingly topless*, and there are. Shenanigans.