top 5 things you're currently coveting on taobao!!
JAY BABE YOU TEMPT ME WHAT DO I NOT WANT ON TAOBAO (and @sarah-yyy pointed out this new store to me today and I blame her for all the new items I added to my cart today) but anyway here’s a mix of what I have in my 11.11 cart and also in my saves:
1. Gu Gong Eyeshadow Palette
2. Gu Gong Paper Lamp!!! IT IS FARKING GORGEOUS!!!
3. Gu Gong Pastel Snuff Bottles!!!!!!! I will look like such an old person with these but... it’s worth it look at the engraving I cry
4. Breaking the Clouds/Swallowing the Sea Acrylic A4-Sized Cards!!! I finished both series two weeks ago and FELL IN LOVEEEEE. They gonna look so handsome as A4 sized transparent cards on my shelf!!
5. Devil Wants A Hug Plushie! Damn, yes another plushie (aside from the two new fat ass Tsum Tsum style Hualian TGCF ones I bought over the weekend), fell in love with this manga last week and I HAVE TO HAVE THE MERCH
+1 BONUS: This embroidered outerwear!!!
I don’t know when I’ll ever get to wear it but I guess this is my only chance to feel gangster and regal all at once so I am buying it LMAOOO
Nie Mingjue is immediately wary when Nie Huaisang comes into his room, a sheepish smile on his face.
“What is it now?” Nie Mingjue asks him with a sigh and shakes his head fondly at Nie Huaisang when he gives him his most winning smile.
“Someone approached me in the bar last night,” Nie Huaisang says, and Nie Mingjue’s hackles immediately raise.
“What did they do?” he demands to know, already half raised out of his hair, even though he knows it’s stupid.
That person isn’t there right now, but his protective instincts are hard to keep in check when it comes to his brother.
“Nothing,” Nie Huaisang promises him, but the sheepish smile doesn’t leave his face. “He was nice, actually, but still not my type.”
“So?” Nie Mingjue dangerously asks, because if that guy didn’t take a no when his brother told him, then a head is going to roll.
“So I gave him your phone number when he asked about it,” Nie Huaisang finishes in a rush and Nie Mingjue immediately reaches for his phone.
There is not yet a notification on it, but he knows from experience that it won’t take too long.
They have done this more than a few times already; Nie Huaisang gives out Nie Mingjue’s phone numbers to the creeps when they won’t leave him alone and Nie Mingjue is more than happy to put the fear of all the gods they know into them when they call or text.
It’s a very well working system. Nie Huaisang can feel safe when he goes out and Nie Mingjue can be sure that the creeps will end up with him.
“Just how mean do you want me to be to this guy?” Nie Mingjue asks, because this is the first time that Nie Huaisang gave out Nie Mingjue’s number to someone he didn’t find appalling, and Nie Mingjue isn’t quite sure how to react to that.
“I doubt you could be mean to him,” Nie Huaisang says cryptically and then widens his smile the tiniest bit when Nie Mingjue narrows his eyes at him.
“What have you done?” Nie Mingjue wants to know, but Nie Huaisang shakes his head.
“Nothing, It’s just--like I said, he was nice. I don’t think you can be mean to him.”
“There is only one person I can never be mean to, and you know it. So I am sure as fuck not going to be nice to this guy,” Nie Mingjue growls out and checks his phone again, because now that he thinks about Lan Xichen, he realizes that he hasn’t heard from him all day.
“Wanna bet?” Nie Huaisang asks him in a rush and Nie Mingjue knows his brother well enough to know that he is up to something.
“I don’t think I want to,” he slowly says but the smile on Nie Huaisang’s face doesn’t dim at all.
“Thought so,” he chirps and then opens his fan with a flick of his wrist. “Remember, be nice!” he calls back over his shoulder before he leaves and Nie Mingjue sighs as he watches his brother’s back.
He wonders if Nie Huaisang will ever take anything seriously, but he is startled out of his worry when his phone lights up with a call.
It’s an unknown number and Nie Mingjue braces himself before he accepts it.
This fucking guy better not be inappropriate the moment he picks up the call, because the last time that happened, Nie Mingjue had half a mind to track that guy down for a more permanent beat-down than just the verbal one he dished out.
“What?” Nie Mingjue bites out as he answers the call and there is a prolonged silence on the other end.
“Hello?” a voice asks and Nie Mingjue’s stomach sinks when he realizes he knows that voice.
“Xichen,” he breathes out and then he moves the phone away from his ear to check that it really is a new number.
“Mingjue?” he faintly hears Lan Xichen ask and Nie Mingjue brings the phone back to his ear.
It’s only then that the implications of this phone call hit him.
“You hit on my brother?!” Nie Mingjue demands to know and he’s surprised how much that thought actually hurts when he’s been trying to hit on Lan Xichen all this time.
No wonder Lan Xichen never reacted to it.
“What?” Lan Xichen questions and Nie Mingjue can hear him huff out a laugh, the soft one, that always makes the corners of his eyes crinkle the tiniest bit and Nie Mingjue hates himself a little bit that he knows Lan Xichen so well.
The pain in his chest makes it hard to breathe for a second.
“Why would I hit on your brother?” Lan Xichen wants to know and Nie Mingjue can feel his temper rise, because he doesn’t appreciate these kind of games.
“He said you approached him last night and asked for his number,” Nie Mingjue bites out and he has half a mind just to hang up because he doesn’t want to hear Lan Xichen admit to that.
“I did approach him,” Lan Xichen says and Nie Mingjue has to close his eyes at hearing that. “But I asked him for your number,” Lan Xichen goes on and Nie Mingjue’s eyes snap open.
“What?” he breathes out and he can just imagine how Lan Xichen shakes his head at him.
“I totalled my phone yesterday, and when I saw your brother I was just setting up the new one, so I thought I could get your number back immediately. I went over and asked him. Did he not mention that?”
“No,” Nie Mingjue says, because Nie Huaisang had very much not mentioned that.
But now that Nie Mingjue replays the talk he just had with his brother he realizes that Nie Huaisang had been deliberately vague.
“Did you really think I would hit on your brother?” Lan Xichen asks, and his voice is soft all of a sudden.
“I don’t know,” Nie Mingjue honestly says, because it’s not like he knows who would catch Lan Xichen’s eyes.
He only admitted to being in love once, and he never gave Nie Mingjue any details about it, so Nie Mingjue has no clue about what type of person Lan Xichen likes.
There’s a prolonged silence on the other end, before Lan Xichen takes a deep breath.
“How can I hit on your brother when I’m in love with you?” Lan Xichen then softly asks and Nie Mingjue is speechless.
Lan Xichen cannot have said that, there must be something wrong with his ears.
“Mingjue?” Lan Xichen carefully asks when Nie Mingjue has been silent for long minutes, and Nie Mingjue can hear how worried Lan Xichen is.
“I’m sorry if I misinterpreted your flirting,” Lan Xichen lowly tacks on when Nie Mingjue still hasn’t found his voice and it’s that that finally jolts Nie Mingjue out of his surprise.
“You never reacted to it!” Nie Mingjue calls out and then winces at the volume of his voice. “You never flirted back.”
“I was trying to,” Lan Xichen sheepishly says. “I’m just not very good at it.”
“You were trying to,” Nie Mingjue parrots back.
“Yes.”
“You were trying to flirt back. To me. Because you’re in love with me.”
“Yes,” Lan Xichen says again. “Is that a problem?” Lan Xichen wants to know and Nie Mingjue chuckles softly at that.
It’s the farthest thing from a problem Nie Mingjue can imagine.
“No, not at all,” he tells Lan Xichen who lets out a relieved breath.
“Thank the gods,” he whispers. “Listen, I might actually be at your door, if you, you know, want to do anything about this love confession?” Lan Xichen rambles and Nie Mingjue is on his feet before he even finishes his sentence.
He doesn’t bother to answer Lan Xichen, and simply marches over to the front door, tossing his phone onto the couch when he comes through the living-room, and quickly crossing the last few meters to the door.
When he flings it open, Lan Xichen is really there, frowning down at his phone, but he smiles when he looks up at Nie Mingjue.
“Hi,” Lan Xichen says and pockets his phone and Nie Mingjue puts a hand to his cheek and reels him in for a kiss.
He has wanted to do that for so long, he’s not waiting a second longer.
Lan Xichen responds very eagerly, his fingers digging into Nie Mingjue’s hips and he opens up under Nie Mingjue beautifully.
Lan Xichen’s face is dusted with red when they finally part.
“Hi,” Nie Mingjue then belatedly says and he kisses the laughter right out of Lan Xichen’s mouth.
They only move inside the apartment when Nie Huaisang comes to complain about the draft and Nie Mingjue has half a mind to yell at him for being deliberately vague earlier, but then Lan Xichen leans in for another kiss as he marches him backwards, and Nie Mingjue figures he has more important things to do.
[Prompt taken from this list, but please don’t send in more]
20 for songxiao if you write them!! 😊 xiyao if you dont ♥️
thank you so much!! i’m still working out how to characterize songxiao since i’ve never written them before, but i hope you enjoy the xiyao below in the meantime!
20. a kiss on a scar
The sunlight shines softly in the Hanshi, blanketing the two figures in bed in its warm embrace. Lan Xichen rouses first, creature of habit that he is, and blinks the sleep out of his eyes. He looks down to see Meng Yao curled up against his chest, sound asleep still, which makes this morning a precious one indeed.
In delicate moments such as this, Lan Xichen can’t help but wonder, if Meng Yao had been welcomed into Koi Tower after the war, would they still have found their way here together?
He’s not sure. Perhaps it is irrelevant to ponder what might have been, when the present is divine. Meng Yao has adapted well to the Lan lifestyle, so much so that even Uncle is begrudgingly impressed. He fits in seamlessly with their Sect, as if he has been here from the beginning.
Even so, Lan Xichen is aware that Gusu is not Lanling, and the pain of being deprived a birthright may never fade from Meng Yao’s heart. But Lan Xichen hopes that he, like the cold springs in his home, can soothe the ache to one day be bearable.
Lan Xichen admires him now, sleep has softened Meng Yao’s sharp edges. He strokes back his dark hair lightly, careful not to wake him. As he does so, his fingers graze an old scar, right at the top of his forehead. It is a shade darker than the rest of his sun-kissed skin, and slightly raised. Lan Xichen remembers seeing it for the first time in Yunping, so he knows Meng Yao was young when he received it. Its jagged pattern tells him that it did not come from a knife or blade. Lan Xichen has never asked, but he is fairly certain he knows from where, and from whom, it came.
He presses a thumb light as a feather against it now. If kisses could heal scars, Lan Xichen would erase each and every one scattered across Meng Yao’s body with his lips. It’s a silly notion, for a kiss to do what even spiritual energy could not.
“Xichen?” Meng Yao mumbles.
“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Lan Xichen says quickly, fingers retreating.
“No,” Meng Yao washes away his concern, before he blinks his eyes open fully and readjusts from side to stomach. He props his face on folded hands under his chin, perfectly comfortable lounging on Lan Xichen’s chest. “I’ve long adjusted to your sect’s schedule.”
“You’ve always demonstrated great discipline, befitting any Lan,” Lan Xichen compliments, before he realizes how his words sound.
Meng Yao’s eyes widen in surprise, and Lan Xichen tenses. Sleep has loosened his tongue.
“Am I a Lan now?” Meng Yao asks casually. No hope or disappointment detectable in his tone to indicate which answer he might prefer.
Lan Xichen holds his gaze steadily. There’s only one way to navigate this, and that is to see it through.
“Not in name. Not yet,” Lan Xichen confesses his innermost desire, and hopes it will be received well. “Not if you don’t wish it, as I do.”
A beat passes, and Lan Xichen worries he’s offended Meng Yao with the most understated, unromantic proposal in all the land.
Finally, Meng Yao’s lips curl up in a smile, wide and pleased.
“You are rather bold this morning,” Meng Yao teases, planting an open-mouthed, wet kiss on Lan Xichen’s pectoral. “But no more bold than you were last night.”
Lan Xichen chuckles, and feels his face warm as blood rushes to his cheeks at the memory of their coupling.
To distract himself from his own embarrassment, Lan Xichen runs a hand through Meng Yao’s hair, gently untangling the wayward knots, massaging his scalp. Meng Yao’s eyes drift closed again as he lets out a small moan of pleasure.
Meng Yao hasn’t given him an answer, but Lan Xichen hasn’t really asked a direct question. It’s alright. They have all the time in the world to discuss their future.
A massage quickly turns to more, and Lan Xichen idly wonders what the purpose is of waking at 5 if they still aren’t out of bed by 6.
Ah well. They’ve broken stricter rules than that today.
Meng Yao is underneath him now, sweat glistening on his skin like dewdrops after rain. Lan Xichen’s heart could burst from the love he feels for this man. He kisses his face, reverently and slowly now that the heat of passion is sated. His chin, a dimpled cheek, the tip of a curved nose. The empty space between his eyebrows where a vermillion dot is missing, the center of his forehead where a ribbon will soon find its way. Then, finally, presses a soft kiss to the scar near his hairline, letting his lips linger on it. Yes, kisses cannot heal scars, but that doesn’t stop Lan Xichen from wanting to try.
When he pulls back, Meng Yao is staring at him with open wonder on his face. He licks his lips as if they’ve gone dry, and whispers, “It’s a reminder.”
Lan Xichen is surprised that Meng Yao is choosing to speak on it. He asks in a hush, “A reminder of what?”
Meng Yao hums as he draws Lan Xichen into a soft kiss, distracting Lan Xichen from watching him too closely. A familiar trick when he’s feeling vulnerable.
“How far I’ve risen from where I was,” Meng Yao reveals into Lan Xichen’s neck. “How far I can still fall again.”
“You will never fall,” Lan Xichen promises. “I will always be there to catch you.”
Meng Yao stiffens for a moment. Then, wraps his arms around Lan Xichen, and holds on tightly to hide the way he’s shaking. Lan Xichen embraces him just as tightly in return.
N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).
I’M GONNA GET PUBLICLY SALTY FOR A MINUTE BC IM IN A BIT OF A FIGHTY MOOD, hope that’s ok ;A;
1. three-dimensional, good-faith takes on characters people tend to typecast or throw under the bus: specifically, yu ziyuan, lan qiren, jiang cheng, lan xichen, and to a lesser extent: wangxian
2. some self-awareness when it comes to the entrenched racism i see every day in this fandom ;)
3. understanding that CQL and mdzs are fundamentally different enough that meta cannot be equivalently applied across media, please and thank u ;D
They’re just...argh. Tragedy. I don’t even need to see them in an explicitly romantic relationship. The two of them in any form is just gut-wrenching tragedy.
Jonny’s post-fight selfie, sent to the group chat.
During the artworking process, @bahoreal and I were talking about the development of the bruising, and although we settled on the first version as Jonny took this photo just after the game, I also wanted to share the second version where the bruising is a bit more developed.
