Luo Qingyang rubs at her temples. It does nothing to soothe her budding headache. “What kind of background information were you able to dig up, Jingyi?”
Lan Jingyi's keyboard suffers further abuse, and photos and documents blink open on the projector screen. A blurry image of two cultivators and a small child posing in front of a Wuling van and three CBC registration forms take up the front with countless windows open behind them.
“Yiling Laozu," says Lan Jingyi, twirling a pen between his fingers.
Luo Qingyang has no idea where he got a pen or why he thinks he needs one, but she refuses to ask.
"Born Wei Ying, registered as a licensed cultivator with the name Wuxian when he was just fourteen. His parents were rogue cultivators, so we don’t know much about his life until he entered the academy at 16, in the same class as our fearless leader, Hanguang Jun." A tap, and a CBC Academy head shot takes up the screen, followed by a series of grade sheets. "Despite his age, Wei Wuxian flourished in his first two years, scoring the highest any non-sect-raised cultivator has ever scored on both swordsmanship and core size--”
“Not everything is about core size, Jingyi,” says Qin Su.
“--and utterly devastating the rankings when it came to talismanic theory and array development.”
The grades are impressive, as are the teachers' notes, though in different ways. They tell the story of a bright kid who couldn't keep his seat or his silence. But still, “Sounds like he had a very promising career in academia if not cultivation law enforcement. Why the dark turn?”
“Ah… " Lan Jingyi assaults his keyboard with the pen this time. Some of the notes are enlarged to take up the whole screen."There were notes from his instructors about inappropriate questions and violent tendencies.”
“What do you mean ‘inappropriate questions’?" asks Nie Zonghui. "Like, harassment-type stuff?”
“No," says Lan Jingyi. "No conduct unbecoming notes in his record. But it seems like this is where his fascination with resentful energy began. Or at least took on an academic nature.”
Luo Qingyang hums. That doesn't quite fit. “Is that why he was expelled? For asking questions?”
“He was expelled for assault against a peer. The report of that altercation, however, is conspicuously absent from his record.”
“Cool. Excellent. Love that for us.” Luo Qingyang's headache begins to throb.
--
“Wei Ying.”
God, his name sounds so good in Lan Wangji's voice. It almost hurts just to hear it. There's so much behind those two syllables, so much more than the meaning of the characters or the connection to a family. There's history in it. Pain.
Lan Wangji's back is still turned.
“Lan Zhan.”
Lan Wangji's knuckles creak.
“What are you doing here, Wei Ying?”
“Like I told old man Lan--”
Lan Wangji's hand slams down on his desk so hard Wei Wuxian is shocked when the glass doesn't shatter. Lan Wangji turns to him — finally, finally — and his face is a mess. Furrowed brows, red-lined eyes, snarled lips, all neutrality shattered.
“Why me?”
It takes Wei Wuxian a moment to swallow down… something. Fear, probably. His heart is racing in his throat. “You know why.”
But Lan Wangji doesn't give him the easy out. His jaw flexes in that way it does whenever he's grinding his teeth. His nostrils flare with his inhale. And his eyes… Golden and glaring. They burn a hole right through Wei Wuxian's rib cage and into the meat of his soul.
Rage looks good on him.
Wei Wuxian knows that — or, he had known that. Once. But he'd forgotten. Clearly. He has to swallow twice before he can speak again.
“Ah…" he stalls, clapping his hands together and rubbing his wrists again.
Lan Wangji waits. His rage settles somewhere closer to his usual serenity — his mouth softening into it's resting frown, perfect brows sloping back into place. The fire in his eyes remains.
Wei Wuxian holds his gaze for as long as he can. But patience has never been his gift.
"We were good together, Lan Zhan," he says. "The best. I mean, come on. Remember back at the academy, I think it was second term they tried to nail us for mind-sharing during a practicum? That proctor was so pissed when it turned out to be a false tip from… Whatshisname.”
“Jin Zixun.”
“Right, that guy.”
Anger returns to the curl of Lan Wangji's lip. “'That guy' is the person who got you expelled.”
He's so indignant about it! Wei Wuxian can't help but laugh. “Ah, Lan Zhan. I was always going to get expelled from that place.”
It comes off more sad than he wants it to, and it shines like regret in Lan Wangji's eyes.
“But that’s not the point," Wei Wuxian hurries to say. "The point is we were good together. The point is if I’m going to be working for the bureau, I need someone who can keep up. I mean, fuck keep up. You caught me. It’s only ever been you.”
Lan Wangji's fists curl tight again. “You want me because we work well together.”
“Yes. Is that-- Lan Zhan!”
Lan Wangji is a world class Sword Path cultivator — possibly the best on their generation. He's strong, fast — so fast! So when he reaches for Wei Wuxian's arm, there's nothing Wei Wuxian can really do other than protest ineffectually and let himself be turned and maneuvered until his back is to Lan Wangji and he's bracing himself against the glass top of the desk. His hand prints smudge against the perfectly clean and clear surface.
Then Lan Wangji says, “Take off your shirt, " and Wei Wuxian shivers from the top of his spine down to his toes.
"My shirt?" he asks, a little breathless, as Lan Wangji's heat steps away to some other part of the room. "Are you sure—"
An inkstone and a stick of cinnabar clunk down on the desktop next to his hand and he abruptly understands. Shivers, again, but for different reasons this time.
"Ah…" he says. "Tracking or binding?"
"Both. Take off your shirt."
He rights himself and reaches for the hem of his t-shirt as the tangy smell of fresh blood slips through the sandalwood incense. He watches Lan Wangji hold his own hand steadily above the inkstone as the life of him drip, drip, drips into the black clay well.
There's something a little thrilling about Lan Wangji using his own lifeblood to bind Wei Wuxian. To keep him tethered on a leash. Of course Lan Wangji would never use anyone else's. He would never ask such a thing of another person — to be bound in return. The leash pulls both ways, though only Wei Wuxian's power will be cut by it.
Wei Wuxian braces himself against the desk once more, careful to keep to the hand print smudges he's already made.
Lan Wangji grinds cinnabar into the well of blood. Dips his brush.
The first stroke is nothing, but the second sears into Wei Wuxian's skin, tugging, then yanking at the power inside him. Gathering it into a ball one stroke, one strand at a time.
Wei Wuxian grips the edge of the desk and lets the sharp corners dig into his palms. It's all he can do not to scream.
“Ah, diplomacy. So much better than people stabbing each other at banquets.”
Hopeless. “No one is stabbed at banquets.”
“Pity,” Nie Zonghui muttered.
“I know!” Nie Huaisang nodded vigorously. “I keep making a note in the clan’s records every time we come back from another discussion conference. ‘Did not stab Jin Guangshan. No one else did either. Better luck next time?’”
Nie Huaisang is disappointed in the cultivation sects’ lack of action (chp. 2)
A Long Road by Vathara (AO3)
Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed/Valdemar – Teen – Lan Zhan/Wei Ying
#Crossover #Fandom Fusion #Canon Divergence #Fluff and Angst #Scheming Nie Huaisang #Necromancy #Fire #Ghosts #Mentions of Violence #Mentions of Death #Accidental Child Acquisition
The diplomatic mission went fine, until the white horse yao kidnapped the necromancer’s boyfriend.
(The Companion would like to object to yao.)
(Lan Wangji objects to boyfriend.)
(Wei Wuxian objects to… Fine, whatever. The locals have a word for the ghost path? Roll with it!)
(Queen Selenay would just like to know when the gods will stop dumping legends on her doorstep.)
Posting more old stuff. Finally gathered together enough of my brain to clean up the Petshop of Horror AU shorts and put them in a vaguely proper timeline order.
---
Nie Zonghui is fifteen the first time he enters the aviary and sees a boy watching his movements instead of a bird.
It's thrilling.
It's terrifying.
He's been told all his life what an honor it is to even be considered a potential partner by Sang-er, but for it to actually happen-
"Remember," his mother warns him gently. "You have to wait for him to pick you. Very bad things happen to those who try to jump ahead with him."
He nods nervously, remembering how a man from one of the other great sects had "vanished" a year previously after attempting to force the issue, and even the man's own sect leader had written it off as a careless (stupid) mistake and informed the Nie sect there would not need to be any recompense.
For a time, nothing else seems to change, other than the knowledge he is now in a different -unspoken- class of disciple.
Three months later, he is taking a break from his studies when a graceful hand snitches a slice of peach from his plate.
That in itself is nothing new, as Sang-er has always been playful whether bird or boy, but the heat in a bright green stare when Nie Zonghui looks up makes his mouth go dry with a mix of nerves and anticipation.
Sang-er smiles and offers him a hand up and he goes more than willingly, hoping he won't embarrass himself.
---
He's not sure how to feel the day that his perception of Sang-er changes.
He's heard others talk about nervous anticipation, or hope, or even fear, but...
"Talk to me, Jue-er," Sang-er murmurs, running long nails that feel like talons through his hair.
It's a really pleasant feeling, though it doesn't disperse the discomfort in his stomach.
"It feels like an obligation," Nie Mingjue mutters.
The look that crosses Sang-er's face makes him feel like an asshole, but now that the words are coming out, he can't make them stop. "Bond a saber, lead the sect, fuck the resident good luck charm. All the requirements to be Nie-zongzhu laid out nice and neat."
The petting stops.
"You know, I only accepted three of the men who were Nie-zongzhu before you," Sang-er says, then quietly gets up and walks back to the aviary.
Oh.
Wow.
Now he feels like an even bigger asshole.
Sang-er doesn't change back into a bird, but that doesn't lessen the feeling that he has ruined things between them.
He knows it's on him to apologize, but he doesn't know how.
In the end, it turns out not to matter much. Sang-er meets him in his new rooms two weeks after his father's funeral.
"Remember. I chose you," Sang-er says as he sinks into Nie Mingjue's lap and nuzzles up under his chin.
He won't forget.
---
One of the girls who worked with his mother loved telling outlandish stories of how cultivators would tame magical creatures to protect their sects.
He had only ever listened with half an ear, dismissing most of them as pure fantasy.
And then his new sect leader introduces him to the prettiest boy he's ever seen and tells him that is actually a bird.
"Hm. Not to you, apparently," Nie Mingjue says, looking more amused than anything.
"I- is that bad?" Meng Yao asks, suddenly fearful that he's failed some kind of secret test.
One explanation later, he's still reeling a little bit.
He has been warned that Sang-er might take a while to choose him, or won't choose him at all. But to even be considered an option is overwhelming.
The stories all said that one had to be an exceptional cultivator to draw the interest of such a being, and he is... very much not that, especially not after being trapped in a bottleneck for the better part of a year.
So when he returns to his room one evening and finds Sang-er waiting for him, all curled up with his chin resting on his knees, he can't help blurting out the question that has haunted him for weeks.
"Why me?"
Sang-er tilts his head, then unfolds himself gracefully and slips off the bed. "I don't see why it matters, but we can help each other. All power has to be refined before it can be used."
It's an offer to crack open the bottleneck for him, Meng Yao realizes, and his chest and throat close up with painful knots of emotion. "Please. I'll give you anything you want," he begs involuntarily, the words escaping despite being sticky in his mouth.
Sang-er smothers a laugh with a gauzy sleeve, the sound making him shiver. "There's no need for that kind of dramatic proclamation, Yao-er. Just relax," he says, and then leans in to kiss him.
---
He is working the festival crowds, picking pockets and snitching snacks, when a rumble of excited awe goes up in the town's center square.
"I can't believe they've allowed him out of the fortress," one woman murmurs to her companion.
"How much do you think old man Chang paid to get them to have him bless the area?" he hears another man say.
"If it means the crops survive this year, they can have the whole sect treasury as far as I'm concerned," his friend replies.
Curious despite himself, Xue Yang slips through the very, very few gaps in the mass of people towards the center of all the attention.
He's almost made it to the front of the crowd when he finds himself on his face in the dirt.
He raises his head, intent on cursing out whoever tripped him-
-and finds himself locking gazes with a pale-eyed boy sitting amongst the green and grey robes of a sect that isn't the Changs.
The boy smiles and gives him a little wave.
Xue Yang feels dizzy.
Unfortunately, the crowd shifts again, and he doesn't get the chance to see the stranger again before they leave.
---
The first time the pretty boy in green and gold silks that are far too revealing for Qinghe's weather smiles at him, all sweetness and sharp teeth, Lan Xichen feels dizzy.
Having heard about Sang-er from Mingjue-xiong, he knows what it means that he is seeing a boy at all, but he never thought... he never considered...
He was the heir, meant to marry and have children.
Nie Mingjue outright laughs at him when he brings it up. "As if bedding Sang-er has ever stopped anyone else, even a Lan, from doing that."
He's not sure what to think of that. It should be... indecent that anyone of his sect would have slept with someone, especially a yao, that they had no intention of wedding.
He starts to wonder if maybe he's a little naive.
There's a prickly little itch in the back of his brain that says maybe he should ask Sang-er more about it.
That's... all he'll do...
Surely.
—
It's… not.
When, much later, Lan Xichen lies dazed with a pretty boy still curled up against his chest, he has a whole new perspective on things.
---
While Jiang Cheng has heard of Qinghe's strange pet almost all his life, most of the gossip being either jealousy from the Jin sect or denigration from the adults of his own, he doesn't actually meet Sang-er until almost a month after Wei Wuxian has returned from the Burial Mounds.
"Aren't you supposed to be lucky?" he asks, too bitter to remember at that moment that he should be seeing a bird and not a boy.
Sang-er tilts his head in an unnervingly birdlike manner and levels him with an unreadable stare. "Would you like to know how this would be going if I wasn't here?" he asks mildly.
Jiang Cheng quickly shuts up and retreats to meet with the weaponsmiths.
It's another five days before Sang-er approaches him, alighting in front of him just before he can enter the tent where he sleeps. "My blessing is starting to wane. And you're going to need it for the next push your martial brother is planning."
Jiang Cheng swallows hard. "Shouldn't you be going to him, then?" he asks, trying not to sound envious.
Sang-er leans up on his toes and wraps slender arms around his neck, then kisses him lightly. "No."
Oh.
Okay.
He is… very okay with this.
---
Wen Ruohan had only been the third son of the sect, no one important really, when he found himself among Sang-er's potentials.
The first one from outside of Qinghe Nie. The only one among his brothers and sisters.
His father had been smug; his siblings jealous.
Wen Ruohan himself had only been smitten.
Be it the possibility that a little of the pretty boy's luck had, quite literally, rubbed off on him, or a newfound desire to prove himself worthy, he had quickly surpassed his older brothers to steal away the position of sect heir.
But as his strength and standing grew, so too did his jealousy. The fact that Sang-er belonged to Qinghe Nie, that he had other mates, including the sect leaders…
It was hardly fair, was it? When Wen Ruohan could best them all?
And, for three generations, that jealousy quietly simmered. Even as he found himself eventually drawn in by Nie Haoran's irreverent, jovial attitude, found himself becoming friends with the fourth Nie-zongzhu he'd known in his lifetime, it remained under the surface.
Until it escaped.
It is only after Nie Haoran's death that he learns that his old friend and supposed rival was never one of Sang-er's chosen. That for all the clear fondness, they had only been a sect leader and a sect pet.
It's too late to fix things. Sang-er never requests to meet him again.
When the other sects foolishly decide to follow the Nie in standing against the inevitable, he immediately orders the capture of Qinghe's most valuable pet. But Sang-er proves to be surprisingly elusive for a creature of such fame and recognition, and every agent he sends inevitably winds up sentenced to the Fire Palace for failure… until they stop coming back at all, either due to cowardice or because Sang-er has taken note that he is being hunted.
And then, one night, he wakes from his bed in the Palace of the Scorching Sun to find Sang-er watching him from the sill of the open window.
As a bird, not a boy.
Incensed by the very clear rejection, he attacks the bird, not caring whether to capture or kill, and the bird retaliates with talons and wing edges as sharp as honed steel.
Badly injured and mind in a storm, he does not react fast enough when the spy within his ranks (and one of Sang-er's current chosen), steps out of the shadows of the servants' entrance with a sword in hand.
---
He only ends up in Qinghe at all because their father sends him along with Yao-ge as "extra hands", which they both know just means getting rid of him for a while.
At least Yao-ge is nice about it, sharing lunch with him on the way.
"Should I go... somewhere?" he asks his brother nervously as they enter the gates.
"Hm..." Yao-ge flags down a servant who seems to recognize him. "Would A-Yu be permitted to see the aviary?"
"As long as Sang-er allows it, it's fine. Let's stop by the kitchens to get some fruit for the little ones."
"Little ones?" Mo Xuanyu asks.
"Some finches and nightjars found their way in over the last winter. Sang-er likes them well enough, so we never chased them out."
—
There are not a bunch of little birds and one large bird in the aviary.
There are a bunch of little birds and a boy his age whose pale-eyed gaze makes him feel like he's going to faint from his heart beating too fast.
"U- um-"
The servant who escorted him in makes a noise like trying to turn a laugh into a cough. "I'll let Zongzhu know a new candidate has arrived."
Wait, what?
He quickly turns around, but the door has already closed.
There was a rarepair event a few years ago and I had an idea with Jiang Cheng and Nie Zonghui and I really liked it. I remember liking it. And ofc I've only written like, 5 sentences. No notes, no nothing. I have no idea what it was about or where it was going, so now it's just there, in my files, haunting me
Characters: Jiang Yanli, Nie Zonghui, Nie Mingjue, Jiang Fengmian
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Marriage of Convenience, in which the Jins were conspiring with the Wens, and Nie Mingjue Did Not Like That, nie zonghui is an actual puppy and i love him, (so does jyl), Happy Ending, stilton pushing her madam nie jyl agenda
Summary:
On the day before she is meant to marry Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli marries Nie Zonghui.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 17/?
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Nie Huaisang/Nie Zonghui, Jiang Yanli/Nie Huaisang, Jiang Yanli/Nie Huaisang/Nie Zonghui
Characters: Nie Huaisang, Jiang Yanli, Nie Zonghui, Various others making appearances
Additional Tags: Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Having to choose between duty and love, and ending up with both, Jiang Yanli deserves nice things, Like two hot men catering to her every need, eventually, After some angst of course, Because it's always sweetest after the angst, Butterfly effect-ish, AKA a small change has a huge effect on the Sunshot campaign and aftermath, Polyamory, Gratuitous mention of Nie Huaisang's porn collection, That deserves to be a tag of its own
Summary:
Nie Huaisang returns home from Cloud Recesses to find a party from Yunmeng Jiang already there and in talks with Nie Mingjue to form an alliance that would be cemented by his marriage to Jiang Yanli. The Alliance would give them the edge they all need over the Wen, and it's something he can't refuse outright. He plans to find a way out of the arrangement - his heart already belongs to another, loyal and dutiful Nie Zonghui whom he has loved in the shadows for fear of how their relationship might be received.
After much heartbreak, guilt, war, and love, Nie Huaisang will find a way to uphold both his duties to his brother and sect and those to his heart.
~ ~ ~
Well, it seems my brain wanted to help distract me from moving stress by re-reading this WIP, discovering my computer had 2 unpublished chapters, editing them, and even writing a few new paragraphs. Am just putting one chapter up for now, we’ll see how it goes.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao & Nie Huaisang, Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao & Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang & Nie Mingjue, Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao/Nie Huaisang
Characters: Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Nie Zonghui, Cameo - Meng Shi, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Cameo - Lan Wangji, mentions of Jin Guangshan - Character, Mentions of Qīnghéng-jūn
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Setting Based on Tiger and Bunny, Show Business, Corporate Espionage, Drama, Friend or Idol Decisions, Mixed Adaptation, Serious Injuries, Hospitals, Dysfunctional Family, Hidden Talents, Cliffhangers, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Ambiguous Relationships, could be shippy, could not be
Summary:
Go, heroes!
Against the backdrop of glittering city lights, the newest generation of costumed crimefighters have been making glowing reputations for themselves. But the newest arrival to the heroing business, one Meng Yao, is going to learn the hard way that the men behind the curtain have their own agendas in running the city.(
