I want to feel something cold and soft drag across my skin. I want to be blindfolded so I can't see the words you paint, the soft calligraphy you mark me with. The words don't quite spell it out, but I can hear you whispering under your breath.
Mine. It's soft, desperate, warm. Mine. Biting now, bitter with the knowledge that you can't quite touch until the paint dries.
I ask for a picture and I know that you smile. Pushing on my back to make it arch just right, nudging my knees apart to show me off. Your camera clicks and a moment later my phone buzzes. I want to see but you're not done yet.
I wait for the cold to touch me again. I beg for it.
Lan Zhan feels something soft brush against his face and cracks open his eyes. Jiang Cheng is leaning over him. There is soft gray light coming in through the window, filtering through the strands of his hair. Jiang Cheng is smiling softly, pressing feather light kisses to Lan Zhan’s jaw and humming softly. It’s a rare thing when Jiang Cheng wakes up before he does. Lan Zhan reaches out and finds his hands tangling in hair and cloth. He settles his hands on Jiang Cheng’s waist, tilting his chin up a little so that he can press a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s forehead.
Jiang Cheng lets out a breathy little chuckle.
“Good morning,” Jiang Cheng says.
Lan Zhan finds his wrist and sees the ribbon tied there over the watercolor he had painted there. They had waited for it to dry before they went to sleep. The rabbits there leap about Jiang Cheng’s skin. Lan Zhan brings Jiang Cheng’s wrist to his lips.
“Stay with me,” Lan Zhan murmurs.
“We have to get ready,” Jiang Cheng says, tracing the poem he’d written on Lan Zhan’s collarbone the night before. He had sat on top of Lan Zhan, straddling his chest, pressed his tongue between his lips and worked his art across Lan Zhan’s skin. Lan Zhan had stared up at Jiang Cheng, committing every detail of his face to memory. Jiang Cheng is the most beautiful person Lan Zhan has ever seen. He wants to paint him forever. “Your uncle and brother can’t figure out I’ve been spending my nights here.”
Perhaps, in another life, where Lan Zhan didn’t hide his painting from his family, he would have felt more appalled at his behavior. But Jiang Cheng is freedom and everything that Lan Zhan loves. The way Jiang Cheng holds his brush makes Lan Zhan forget every rule he’d grown up learning. They both keep each other’s secrets and every day a new secret is added.
Lan Zhan wants to keep Jiang Cheng.
“You do not have to worry about anyone wondering where you were during the night,” Lan Zhan takes a lock of Jiang Cheng’s hair in between his fingers. He regrets the words that come out of his mouth a moment later.
“True,” Jiang Cheng agrees, but doesn’t pull away from him. “A-Xian is gone now. It’s just me here. He won’t ask me where I’ve been.”
Lan Zhan doesn’t know how to feel about Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian is chaotic and slapdash but he is a good person. Jiang Cheng is quieter, but flooding over with emotions that no one sees. Wei Wuxian quite clearly adores and loves Jiang Cheng, but he takes him for granted, assuming he will always be there by his side.
Lan Zhan knows it is arrogant of him.
He doesn’t know that Jiang Cheng has given himself to Lan Zhan, he doesn’t know that Jiang Cheng steadily burns his life away with ink, he doesn’t know that Jiang Cheng is like water that will slip through their fingers.
Lan Zhan knows, figured it out without being close to Jiang Cheng.
How Wei Wuxian doesn’t know is a mystery to him.
So he holds Jiang Cheng close, trying to keep him to himself. Lan Zhan knows it’s impossible, because Jiang Cheng is always somehow distant, like he’s preparing himself for the end. He still cannot stop writing and so will disappear with the wind one day.
He paints Jiang Cheng’s skin instead, desperate to carve some of himself onto Jiang Cheng’s existence.
He’s still so grateful that Jiang Cheng let him close.
“Before you go,” Lan Zhan says softly, sitting up and pressing his forehead to Jiang Cheng’s bare shoulder. “Let me paint something.”
“Hm, where?” Jiang Cheng asks in assent.
Lan Zhan gently pushes Jiang Cheng back so he falls onto the bed. He grips his right calf with one hand and lifts Jiang Cheng’s leg, hitching it onto his shoulder. He presses a kiss to the side of Jiang Cheng’s knee. Jiang Cheng gazes up at him, hair spread across Lan Zhan’s bedding. His skin is already covered in ink and watercolor.
Lan Zhan has never seen anyone more beautiful.
“How bold, Lan Wangji,” Jiang Cheng says playfully, a smile spreading across his face. Lan Zhan pouts and retaliates by pressing kiss after kiss in the same spot until it blooms red. Jiang Cheng’s leg twitches against Lan Zhan’s hand and shoulder. A laugh escapes Jiang Cheng’s lips.
Lan Zhan reaches for the watercolors next to his bed. He knows very well that it is not a good place to leave his art supplies and painting on his bed is even worse, but he hasn’t been able to stop. The first time he’d painted on Jiang Cheng’s skin, he had been scared, feeling like he was committing the worst sin. Now, he cannot stop.
Jiang Cheng watches him with bright eyes as he rehydrates his brushes and then dips it in the paints. He lifts a wet brush and then brings it to Jiang Cheng’s skin. The kiss mark becomes the center of a flower, spiraling across Jiang Cheng’s leg, covered in dew and adorned by other small flowers and a tiny hummingbird. Lan Zhan knows he needs to finish quickly. His brother likes to invite him to take a short walk before breakfast and the watercolor needs time to dry.
He finishes up with quick strokes and then studies the paint. He’d been shallow, barely there lines of color, meant to decorate Jiang Cheng’s beautifully tanned skin, not cover it. They both stay completely still as the paint dries.
Lan Zhan tests it with a finger and once he’s satisfied that it’s dry he turns to look back at Jiang Cheng.
His eyes are half-lidded, staring up at Lan Zhan with pure fondness and desire. A rush of something warm fills Lan Zhan’s chest and he immediately leans forward. Jiang Cheng gasps as his leg is folded on top of him and then Lan Zhan presses a kiss to his lips. He wishes he was allowed to paint every inch of Jiang Cheng’s skin and show the world that he belonged to him. The hummingbird thrums under his fingertips, flutters and then races across the expanse of skin the flower stretches across.
Jiang Cheng whines into the kiss.
Lan Zhan had asked him once what it felt like to have his miracle on his skin. Jiang Cheng had said it felt like Lan Zhan was caressing him with his spiritual energy. It makes Lan Zhan’s heart soar. It makes him feel like Jiang Cheng will never forget him, always covered in traces of him.
“I need to get ready,” Jiang Cheng protests between kisses.
“You do,” Lan Zhan agrees, kissing him again.
This will end in a moment.
Lan Zhan will let Jiang Cheng go and he will get dressed, make his hair and sneak away. During the day they will be casual friends, close but not close enough. They will hide the brushes they carry in their sleeves and cover up the ink and paint on their skin. Lan Zhan wants to say it’s not fair.
It really isn’t.
He kisses Jiang Cheng one last time before pulling away and sitting back down on his ankles. Jiang Cheng sits up and stares at his knee and the plant crawling up his thigh. The hummingbird flits from one flower to another. He gently runs his finger over the painted skin.
“It’s beautiful,” Jiang Cheng says softly.
“Won’t you write on me?” Lan Zhan asks. He already knows the answer though. Jiang Cheng is very careful with what he writes, thinks about it, grinds the ink for a long time before he actually starts to write. They do not have the time for it now.
“Tonight,” Jiang Cheng promises, pressing a kiss to the corner of Lan Zhan’s mouth before getting out of bed and going for his clothes.
Tonight they will study together after dinner and then sneak back to Lan Zhan’s room. They will write and paint together, talk about mundane things, debate poetry, exchange touches and then put their brushes to each other’s skin.
Jiang Cheng hums as he puts on his clothes. Lan Zhan watches him fasten on his belt and make sure all his robes are tucked in tightly and then he reaches for the comb that Lan Zhan bought for him at Caiyi and starts to do his hair. He is looking out the window, watching the skin turn brighter. His eyes are distant and Lan Zhan feels as if he will slip away.
Don’t go , Lan Zhan thinks.
But there is nothing he can do to stop Jiang Cheng.
He knows better than anyone else how the brush grips his heart and how he cannot stop once he starts. Jiang Cheng is beautiful when he writes. Lan Zhan would never take it from him.
“Aren’t you going to get ready?” Jiang Cheng turns to look at him.
“I will,” Lan Zhan says, getting up.
The day will soon start, the dream will soon end.
There is a far future that Lan Zhan still refuses to think about. Eventually Jiang Cheng will have stayed a year. Eventually he will go back home. Futures are not something they speak about. The both of them already know what awaits them in the future. One day, Lan Zhan will no longer be able to use his arms. One day, Jiang Cheng will have destroyed himself from the inside. They will part ways and Lan Zhan will be left alone, loving the empty space that Jiang Cheng will leave behind.
Some would say it would be better to not love Jiang Cheng then.
But how could Lan Zhan not.
Jiang Cheng is the most captivating person he has ever seen. Lan Zhan greedily consumes everything about Jiang Cheng that he can. He will keep to himself what he can and he will try his best to leave a permanent mark on Jiang Cheng’s soul.
He is possessive.
Much like his father.
But unlike his father, he would never clip Jiang Cheng’s wings.
“You’re not getting ready,” Jiang Cheng remarks.
“Will you continue to wear my forehead ribbon?” Lan Zhan asks.
Jiang Cheng blinks and then looks down at his wrist. He startles and tries to quickly unknot it with one hand. It’s impossible, of course. He looks up at Lan Zhan with a frown and Lan Zhan wants to kiss him again. He wants to pick him up and into his arms and undress him the way he did last night. He wants to paint every inch of his skin, cover him in so many things he cannot put into words. He wants to keep Jiang Cheng tucked into his side, always near him. He wants Jiang Cheng to be his.
“Let me,” Lan Zhan says and moves forward. He takes Jiang Cheng’s wrist and carefully undoes the knots tying the ribbon to Jiang Cheng’s wrist. The ribbon comes free and as it slips from his wrist, it feels like Lan Zhan has lost him.
“I’m going now,” Jiang Cheng says. He leans into Lan Zhan, pressing a kiss to his cheek and then he picks up his sword and walks away.
Lan Zhan watches him go, feeling like Jiang Cheng carved a hole in his chest and then left.
He needs to paint.
He needs to paint what Jiang Cheng looks like.
He only puts on his inner robes and then gets his watercolors. He paints his mind 's image of Jiang Cheng in his bed, gazing up at him with bright eyes. He covers him in flowers and butterflies that flutter in his hair.
In her waking hours, Rey's bond with Kylo Ren is her dirty secret, marked by bitterness and hostility since Crait. At night, in her dreams, she lets him write on her with brush and ink.
"Ink keeps secrets," he tells her.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
@linearla's Inkstains is a masterpiece blending poetry, art, and eroticism. Read it. Go. Now.
Pairing: Yoongi/Jungkook
Rated: T
Author: MotionlessMuse
Length: 2k
It begins with Yoongi's wrists - small proverbs and phrases inked, adorning otherwise unblemished and blank skin - and gradually builds up into something more.
READ ON AO3
Reccer’s Note:
I love these shorter sort of fics, they give off a different kind of vibe. They’re quick to read but still so full of it’s own character and it’s own feeling, another great fic by a great author - Nana
It begins with Yoongi’s wrists - small proverbs and phrases inked, adorning otherwhise umblemished and blank skin - and gradually builds up into something more.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jeon Jungkook/Min Yoongi | Suga
Characters: Jeon Jungkook, Min Yoongi | Suga
Summary
It begins with Yoongi's wrists - small proverbs and phrases inked, adorning otherwise unblemished and blank skin - and gradually builds up into something more.
It begins with Yoongi’s wrists - small proverbs and phrases inked, adorning otherwise unblemished and blank skin - and gradually builds up into something more.
