#Wen Ning being his usual adorable self and calling nmj uncle

[aki-draws-things]

Absolutely shameless fluff because the morning started really bad at work and I'm already getting overwhelmed. So have this fluffy ruojue and kids disturbing them.

Nie mingjue laughed. Probably one of the strangest sounds to ring across Nevernight in these days, when a perpetual dark fog seemed to surround the city and the palace. Nie mingjue laughed, as the sun was rising, and wen ruohan blinked awake slowly. Once he liked early mornings, once, when he was much younger, less burdened by a sect to lead, two sons to control, and raise, and a good half of the cultivation world hating him for... For whatever he did. For everything he did. He once didn't care for their opinions on him either. He once... He forgot what it felt like to have someone, have him, around. So close he could stretch an arm out and grab him, grasp his sleeve and hold it. - oh, he used to do it so many time, back then. Hold on his sleeve and following him around. He had been so young, then. -

Now he woke up and the chamber was empty, the bed was empty, like it had been for so long, and there was laughter from outside. Usually he woke up and the first thing he felt was the low whisper of the yin metal, words he couldn't make out, not really, blurring together in his untested mind and driving him mad, to the point he stopped sleeping for days. The yin metal never stopped whispering and twirling, it's red light pulsing before his eyes every time.

Now he woke up to laughter, to a peace he didn't have for many long years. He woke up surrounded by calm and he felt like he could cry.

"wen chao! Stop running around!"

He didn't move, he laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling, listening.

"I'm gonna tell father you ran away during morning meditation! - well, wen ruohan thought, nothing out of the ordinary after all. - naked!" oh, alright, that was out of the ordinary. And still there was something that kept him at ease, unbothered by the yelling and the laughter. When was the last time his sons had truly gotten along? The last time his younger son behaved in a childish manner instead of trying to have his attention.

"Bà will defend me!" the last time he sounded that young?

"Bà was trying to help you meditate, you dumb rock!"

"I'm not dumb! Bà! Tell him I'm not dumb!" when was the last time he called him-- but he wasn't there. And his sons never called him so. Fuqin, at most. Never a-die or bá.

"a-xu, don't call your brother dumb. A-chao, please put something on."

Oh... Oh. Bà.

There was a pause, some silence, then a new voice joining them in a happy cry, and wen chao following it fast enough. And laughters. More laughters.

"master nie-- master, the--- the young Master escaped as I was turned."

It took more minutes, perhaps half an hour before silence fell again in the palace's halls and the door opened. He looked tired. He looked young, as he appeared in these years, younger than wen ruohan, and tired.

"your younger offspring is a menace. - he stated. - he corrupted huaisang. He ran around naked. What did you teach your sons, ruohan?" there was a smile still playing on his lips.

He didn't answer, because now the yin metal was silent around him, like a spell had been laid on it. He wondered how long it would last. He wondered what he could say. So he simply stared at the young looking man in front of him, the one he had loved so dearly in his youth, the one back at his side after many years. The one for who he almost threw the world into chaos because he wanted him back.

"they called you Bà." he managed out in a not even concealed wonder.

"your son was running around in his birth suit and you---"

"Bà! You-- he-- they called you bá." he could cry, he could burst into tears and not be ashamed of it because no one would see him.

"he started on his own, a-chao started it and I couldn't stop him. i tried, believe me. Did you know he could pull off a sad puppy face? Because he can. - nie mingjue walked closer to the bed, and toward the window. - he actually reminds me of a young boy who never left my side, years ago. It was impossible to tell him no, impossible to refuse him something or he would look sad. Do you happen to know him?"

When he turned, because he heard baxia in his mind laugh and he wanted to know at what she was laughing, wen ruohan was still on the bed, kneeling and stretched out with a hand, the hem of MingJue's robe held tight.

"this boy missed his immortal master so much." he whispered, almost whined, he tugged at the robe and nie mingjue laughed again because they couldn't look more different than who they really were, and yet he still saw what he left behind a couple of generations before.

He tugged and tugged until they both were back on the bed.

"uncle nie, can you help us with archery? A-Chao said you would."

Wen Ning slid his head inside the now open door, surely sent ahead by the other boy.

#Nie mingjue #Wen ruohan #Ruojue #Shameless fluff #Because they won't have much of it in the actual fic #Wen kids being actually nice... #A-chao being a shameless menace #Wen Ning being his usual adorable self and calling nmj uncle #Immortal lost #Aki writes