#also - crybaby da-ge rights

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

All Dreams Were Worth Keeping

Modern 3Zun Sunshot AU

Part 2

[Masterpost][Ao3]

-//-

Someone is going to get murdered.

Meng Yao isn’t entirely sure who, precisely, is going to die by his hand, but it’s whoever is currently on the other side of his front door. 

He cracks one eye open and fights down a staggeringly strong flash of anger at the next pounding knock on the cheap wood that feels like it’s happening inside his skull. Smashing his face under his pillow isn’t going to drown that out, and whoever is out there isn’t leaving, so in the interest of solving the problem once and for all Meng Yao drags himself out of bed, snags the knife from his nightstand, and stalks out into his living room to fling the front door open only to instantly put the tip of the knife up under his visitor’s chin. 

“So you’re not dead, then,” Nie Mingjue snarks, chin tipped up to accommodate the blade beneath it. “Huaisang was worried.”

“Huaisang can choke,” Meng Yao replies, nudging the knife a bit higher to force Nie Mingjue’s head further back. “Why are you beating down my door on a Saturday morning, Nie Mingjue?”

“It’s noon.”

“What the fuck does that matter?! Why. Are you. Here?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, enough with the dramatics, A-Yao!” Nie Mingjue swats the knife away and rights his posture to glare at him. “I just told you - Huaisang was worried. He said he didn’t hear from you at all last night and he’s been trying to call you this morning but it keeps going straight to voicemail.”

“I shut my phone off so I could get some sleep, Mingjue, I have more than earned that right,” Meng Yao snaps. He steps back to let Nie Mingjue follow him inside and around the corner to his tiny kitchen. The space instantly feels crowded with Nie Mingjue’s considerable bulk in the doorway but he thankfully stays out of the kitchen itself to give him room to maneuver as he continues ranting. “A plan which you just thoroughly ruined with all your pounding on my door, so now you owe me a lunch and something else that is equal to or greater than the value of another two or three hours of sleep - I’ll let you decide what that will be. You’d better hope for your sake that you guess correctly.”

“I already took care of the lunch I owe you,” Nie Mingjue retorts, which is a weird part of that statement to fixate on but Meng Yao is watching his coffee maker fill up so he’s willing to consider being generous and humor him for a moment as the luring promise of caffeine soothes some of his raw nerves.

“You definitely didn’t.”

“Yes I did! Yesterday right as Xichen and I were leaving, I told Luo Yi to order food for you to have after the budget meeting!”

Meng Yao can’t help but slap one of his hands against the counter at that and turn his head enough to glare at Nie Mingjue over his shoulder.

“Why did you tell him to do it?! You know he hates me!”

“What, you two argue every so often so that means he can’t follow a simple instruction to order you some lunch when I tell him to?”

“Yes, Mingjue! That’s precisely what that means since he clearly didn’t do a single thing about it.”

“But that’s ridiculous!”

Meng Yao can only gesture emphatically with one hand at that (his ‘you think I don’t fucking know that’ is implicit) as he turns his attention back to the coffee pot. Silence descends but for the drip of it for a few long moments as it begins percolating.

“Where’s Lan Xichen?” Meng Yao finally grumbles when the silence grows uncomfortable - or at least the weight of Nie Mingjue’s glare on his back does.

“Lunch with his brother and uncle. What time did you leave the office last night?”

“Oh Mingjue just drop it,” Meng Yao sighs, scrubbing both hands over his face and grimacing at how grimy he feels. “I left when I was done with everything I needed to do, what does it matter what time it was?”

“You know I’ll just pull the information off your security card if you don’t answer me which will just piss you off more!” Nie Mingjue growls. “You might as well tell me yourself.”

“UGH!” Jin Guangyao retorts as emphatically as he can with his face still buried in his hands. “Get out of my apartment, Mingjue. Go tell your brother to stop blowing up my phone and go gaze dreamily into Lan Xichen’s eyes or whatever it is you two are planning to do with your afternoon. I’m tired.”

“A-Yao -”

“Don’t!” Meng Yao snaps as he straightens and turns to see that, sure enough, Nie Mingjue has stepped into the kitchen far enough to reach for him though he freezes instantly on command. 

“A-Sang said that it was almost midnight by the time he stopped trying to text you. He said it was later than anyone in their right mind would ever work, but I know you,” Nie Mingjue says - it’s almost soft. “Were you really at the office that late?”

“What do you care?” Meng Yao snaps back, but he graciously pretends not to notice Nie Mingjue stepping closer as he turns back to the coffee pot, which has just beeped to let him know it’s ready.

His hands stay steady as he pours himself a large mug of it while Nie Mingjue slides his arms around his waist and tucks himself around him like an enormous muscular koala. 

“You know I don’t like you out alone that late at night,” Nie Mingjue says against the side of his neck, voice pitched lower now that he’s right next to his ear. “Or working that late. Did you get to eat anything at all yesterday besides breakfast?”

“Mingjue - seriously, drop it. It’s over, I just want to rest today.”

“Answer my questions and I’ll drop it.”

Meng Yao tips his head back to let out a heavy sigh. Truly, he deserves some sort of award or promotion or consolation sex or something as a reward for putting up with such doggedness applied to the most useless of subjects.

“Yes I was at the office until it was so late I almost missed the last train, yes I’m going to kill you if you don’t let me go take a nap on my couch, no I didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day until I got home, no I’m not dead, and no I wasn’t threatened by anyone on my commute in the middle of the night!! I’m fine, Mingjue, so do us both a favor and just drop it!”

Nie Mingjue sighs against his neck and mouths at it lazily while Meng Yao glares down into his coffee, mourning that it’s too hot to drink just yet but content to just stare at it until he deems it a safe enough temperature. It helps that he’s doing so in Nie Mingjue’s arms which are, annoyingly, extremely comforting on the rare occasions when he wraps them around him like this - even when Nie Mingjue is the reason he needs comforting in the first place.

“Huaisang thought you might be out hooking up with someone,” Nie Mingjue finally mutters almost petulantly against his skin just as he’s taking his first sip of the coffee, and there, finally, is the root of the problem. Meng Yao gives himself two breaths to close his eyes and try to tamp down the irritation flashing through him at the half-accusation. He doesn’t succeed - he’s tired and pissed off and human, sue him.

“Alright, I see how it is. You want to do this? Fine. What if I was? You of all people have no right to get jealous, not even if you knew for a fact that I had gone out to hook up with somebody! And you certainly don’t have the right to come to my apartment the morning after to see if it’s true or not.”

“Why not?”

Meng Yao sets his mug back down hard enough to slosh coffee onto the countertop before he turns in Nie Mingjue’s arms to glare up at him, jabbing a fingertip into his chest.

“Did I or did I not personally deliver a fucking supermodel of a man to your office yesterday? Did I or did I not take on all your work for the afternoon on top of my own so that you could run off and ‘entertain’ him? If, at the end of a long day of twice my usual amount of work - which I only had to do so that you could run home and fool around with your boyfriend, might I add - if I want to find someone available and willing to fuck me senseless then that is my right, Nie Mingjue!”

“So call me!”

“Oh my god! How many times are you going to make me reiterate that you’re with Lan Xichen this weekend?! Besides, why would I bother? I have no illusions about what I am to you!”

“Tell me what you know, then! What are you to me, A-Yao?”

“Convenient!”

Nie Mingjue physically jerks back from the venom in Meng Yao’s voice as he practically spits the word at him. 

Meng Yao likes to fantasize sometimes that someone with a bit more emotional awareness would be able to see his anger for the hurt that it really is. Of course he knows that someone with more emotional intelligence would never touch him with a ten foot pole, but that’s neither here nor there when dealing with fantasies. He has a great many that will never make sense but that he still can’t help but think about on occasion.

But unfortunately for him, in spite of how high Nie Mingjue’s emotions run at all times, he’s shit at recognizing them in other people, and anger for him always exists at face value. His expression shutters instantly into thunderous and Meng Yao braces himself for more yelling - so he’s not entirely sure what to do with the way that Nie Mingjue backs up a step and turns to storm out of the kitchen without another word. He’s still leaning against the counter, frozen with surprise, when the door to his shoe box of an apartment slams shut hard enough to rattle the dishes in the cupboard.

----

“Hey er-ge,” Nie Huaisang calls lazily from the sofa as Lan Xichen shuts the door to the Nie house behind himself.

“Hello A-Sang. How was your -” Lan Xichen’s question is cut off by a resounding crash from the direction of Nie Mingjue’s side of the house. He turns an alarmed stare on Nie Huaisang, who’s still filing his nails like he didn’t hear anything.

“Da-ge got in another stupid fight with Yaoyao earlier, don’t worry about it,” he sighs gustily, blowing his bangs out of his face to better inspect the nail he’s working on.

“Ah...And who is ‘Yaoyao’?”

“Meng Yao. The really cute guy who picked you up at the airport yesterday?”

“Oh, yes of course. Oh dear. Does this happen often?”

“About as often as da-ge has a lot of feelings but can’t find the right words to talk about it so he ends up making things worse.”

Lan Xichen meets Nie Huaisang’s eyes from across the living room and in unison they chorus, “So, often.”

Lan Xichen sighs and shakes his head with fond exasperation. He truly loves Nie Mingjue but even with having known him for most of their lives he still struggles to parse out what it is Nie Mingjue wants sometimes. He can only imagine how much more difficult it would be without so many years of experience with interpreting him to lean on. 

“I should go talk to him.”

“Er-ge wait!” Nie Huaisang sits up suddenly just as he passes the sofa and Lan Xichen pauses, turns to meet the younger man’s eyes with a raised eyebrow. 

“Only go talk to him right now if you’re prepared to get to know Meng Yao in entirely unprofessional and extremely...personal ways,” he warns, suddenly (and strangely) serious. “Da-ge hasn’t figured out what it is he wants yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it.”

Lan Xichen’s other eyebrow joins the first on its journey towards his hairline but Nie Huaisang just stares him down, practically forces him to truly think about it just with the force of his gaze.

He thinks about Nie Mingjue’s constant praises of Meng Yao, of the way his own heart had skipped a few beats and his mind gone temporarily offline when he had met the man himself in the airport the previous day; their light and easy conversation on the way to the office; the fact that Meng Yao had taken Nie Mingjue’s work on his own shoulders to allow them time to spend together; and the way that seeing him facing off against the Jin Corporation heir and his odious cousin had made him want to tuck Meng Yao under his arm and keep him safe from such unpleasant behavior.

“Don’t forget to trim your cuticles,” Lan Xichen says to Nie Huaisang by way of parting after a long few moments of thought. Nie Huaisang simply snorts and flops back down to his previous position, disappearing from view behind the back cushions to keep working on his manicure. 

Lan Xichen turns and takes a deep breath before he soldiers on through the house until he reaches the former guest room that Nie Mingjue has turned into something of a home gym. He opens the door without bothering to knock and steps inside just in time to find Nie Mingjue righting the life size/life weight sparring dummy he had apparently sent flying across the room. He’s shirtless and sweaty and pissed off and Lan Xichen allows himself precisely five seconds to stare at him with the sole purpose of enjoying. 

“What is it, Xichen?” he grumps, his chest heaving from either exertion or emotion, it’s hard to tell. 

“I just got back from lunch and I heard something go flying so I came to see if you’re alright.” He steps forward to cross the room and place one hand on Nie Mingjue’s back, rubbing his hand up and down one well-defined shoulder as he watches Nie Mingjue close his eyes and huff out an irritated sigh. “Would you like to discuss it?” he prompts gently, punctuating it with a kiss to the highest point of Nie Mingjue’s bare shoulder.

When Lan Xichen looks up it’s to find that Nie Mingjue has opened his eyes again but he won’t look at him directly, instead just glancing at him out of the corner of one eye that looks suspiciously red and damp. 

“Oh Mingjue,” Lan Xichen sighs, tender and gentle. “It’ll be alright,” he adds and slips his hand down to press against the small of his back, uncaring of the rivulets of sweat that have gathered in the dip of it just above the waistband of his sweatpants. 

And just like that he finds himself with an armful of a sweaty, crying Nie Mingjue. Lan Xichen smothers a fond smile as he wraps one arm around Nie Mingjue’s slim waist and reaches up with the other hand to cup against the back of his head. Nie Mingjue curls over him to hide his face in his shoulder and clutch his arms around the upper half of his back.

They stand there like that for a while as Nie Mingjue attempts to get himself back under control enough to tell him what’s wrong. Lan Xichen, for his part, knows that there’s really not much he can do besides stroke his fingertips softly against his skin and murmur things that he hopes are soothing in his ear as he cries, so that’s what he does.

It doesn’t take too long before Nie Mingjue is doing nothing more than sniffling into his shirt and Lan Xichen can feel his pout pressed into the front of his shoulder. He waits patiently for the explanation, still just stroking at his skin that’s going cool as his sweat dries. 

“I fought with A-Yao,” he finally grumbles, voice raspy. 

“Mm, I’m sorry to hear that. May I ask what happened?”

“I...He usually comes over for dinner with me and Huaisang on Fridays and then the pair of them go out for drinks after, but you’re here and I just...I don’t know, I didn’t think he’d want to be here so I didn’t think to invite him but then Huaisang wanted to go with him last night anyway but he couldn’t get in touch with him. He said he didn’t know if A-Yao was maybe...hooking up with someone and that was why he wasn’t answering his phone but then this morning his phone was off and I started to get worried so I went to check on him but..” Nie Mingjue heaves a gusty sigh and burrows further into the shelter of his neck. “He was already mad at me and nothing I said came out right so I made it worse,” he finally adds, mumbling so much that Lan Xichen has a hard time understanding him.

“What was he already upset with you for?”

“I woke him up when I went to check on him. And...last night..He wasn’t answering Huaisang’s texts because he was still at the office until he had to get the last train of the night home.”

“Oh dear, that’s quite late isn’t it? Did he feel the need to work so late because of the extra duties he took on so that you and I could spend the afternoon together?”

Nie Mingjue just nods at that and nuzzles closer. Lan Xichen can’t help but frown then, just a slight thing at the corners of his mouth (though that’s still more than he usually ever allows). He’s not a massive fan of the mental image of Meng Yao being stuck alone at the office until well into the night while Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue had been rather thoroughly enjoying being together in person again.

“We shall have to make it up to him, then, that is a much larger sacrifice than I think either of you had anticipated such an arrangement would be. How did you make the situation worse?”

Nie Mingjue groans and lifts his head to peel himself away from Lan Xichen’s embrace. He won’t meet his eyes but instead turns to the sparring dummy to fiddle with it, his eyes fixed on his own hands. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to answer but Lan Xichen is nothing if not patient, so he waits.

And waits.

And then, finally, “I didn’t like the idea of him finding someone else to hook up with.” It sounds shockingly petulant and Lan Xichen can’t help but blink. “And he said that I, of all people, don’t have a right to be...upset by the idea.”

“Mingjue - were you jealous?” Lan Xichen can’t help but ask, still surprised. He’s quite certain he’s never even seen Nie Mingjue jealous, though it has always been a distinct possibility thanks to the rather open nature of their relationship while they’ve been mostly living so far apart from each other.

“It would be just as easy for him to call me as it would be to find some stranger to fool around with! Maybe even easier!” he snaps with the air of someone who’s been repeating this argument to himself (and possibly, he supposes, to Meng Yao) for the better part of the day. 

“I did not realize the two of you had decided to be exclusive,” Lan Xichen gently prods - he’s well aware from many discussions with Nie Mingjue about his relationship with Meng Yao that they haven’t agreed to anything of the sort. It just seems that Nie Mingjue may have forgotten that detail.

“I..we’re...Well it’s not like either of us has slept with anyone else since we started sleeping with each other,” he protests, though it sounds weak.

“I believe I am in a position to confidently refute that assertion,” Lan Xichen says as he steps closer again to press himself up against Nie Mingjue’s muscular back, one arm slipping around his waist to press his hand flat, fingers splayed wide, against his abs and the other hand slipping down to cup against his ass through his sweatpants. “I distinctly remember that you were sleeping with someone who is not Meng Yao last night - and I believe he is intelligent enough to have understood without being expressly told that you would be thus occupied by the time he would possibly be looking for a partner to spend the evening with.”

“It’s different!”

“Is it?” Lan Xichen replies, tone absently curious as he looks down to watch his own hand as he starts rubbing his fingertips slowly up and down the center back seam of the sweats. “How so? Because it was me? Because we are us? Does he know what we are to each other, have you told him?”

“Well..no.” 

“Mm. So it is entirely possible that he does not yet understand that our devotion to each other is not comparable to the momentary satisfaction one might find in a brief sexual encounter with a stranger, or that our relationship was already well established by the time you began taking him into your bed.”

“It’s...possible.”

“Oh Mingjue,” Lan Xichen sighs with a rueful little chuckle as he slips his hand down from the firm curve of Nie Mingjue’s ass to rub up and down the back of his thigh instead in slow, soothing circuits. “Perhaps he is jealous as well? Upset that the weekly routine the two of you share was interrupted by me - an interloper?”

“You’re not an interloper, Xichen!”

“I am an unfamiliar interruption in the routine of his life, at least in this respect. It is understandable that he could be upset by my presence.”

“He...He said I only see him as a convenience.”

“Hm..” Lan Xichen hums in sympathy as he presses a few lingering kisses to Nie Mingjue’s shoulder. “Did you refute it?”

“I shouldn’t have to! He knows me better than that!”

“People say things they may not truly mean when they speak in hurt or frustration, both of which sound like they were in ample supply during your argument. Have you discussed with him how much he means to you? In direct, plain words like you and I discuss such things?”

Nie Mingjue’s silence in response is just as telling as a direct refusal. Lan Xichen allows him to think on it for a few long moments as he drags his kisses along his shoulder towards his neck where he ducks in to part his lips around the protrusion of the vertebra at the base of it. 

“He deserves to know how you feel,” he murmurs against the salt of his lover’s skin. “Just as I did when you needed to inform me. If you feel for him as you do for me, he deserves to know. And if you do not, it would still be in your best interest to clarify the purely sexual nature of your relationship with him going forward.”

“No! I...I care about him,” Nie Mingjue finally sighs, sounding exhausted. “I do, of course I do. I...What about you?”

“Hm? Turn around and look at me, Mingjue,” Lan Xichen prompts softly, using the grip he has on the other man to turn him so that they’re face to face. Lan Xichen meets Nie Mingjue’s eyes and offers him a smile so tender that Nie Mingjue’s eyes go a bit wet again as he watches. “What about me?”

“You and I..We...What we have, Xichen, I don’t - ”

“We have agreed already on multiple occasions to allow others into our relationship. I have had other sexual partners, and you have frequently been with Meng Yao.”

“Yes but..but yours weren’t..this. What if..I..”

“It’s alright, you can say it,” Lan Xichen offers with a nuzzle of the tip of his nose against Nie Mingjue’s. “Tell me what you want, Mingjue. I want to know.”

“I want both of you. You and A-Yao. Together. With me, with each other, all three of us.”

“Mm. I quite like the sound of it, I am more than willing to try. What will you do if Meng Yao does not wish to accept?”

“I..” Nie Mingjue stops immediately and gets a faraway look in his eyes (which are definitely wet again) and Lan Xichen sighs as he reaches up with both hands to hold the man’s face in his palms. He leans in to press a few kisses against his lips.

“Shhh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you again. That question can be answered at a later date,” he soothes between gentle, chaste presses of their lips. “Perhaps we should begin with an apology for the accidental callousness of our actions yesterday and an attempt to offer our thanks for what he did for us. We could also attempt to have a discussion of the nature of our unique situation and ask what he may want with one or both of us going forward.”

Nie Mingjue nods after a moment and sighs, his eyes slipping shut. Lan Xichen can’t resist leaning in to kiss his forehead and both eyelids in quick succession.

“Good. Now - would you like to come take a shower with me?”

----

Meng Yao finally turns his phone back on later that evening when the itching worry that he’s missing something important finally overwhelms his desire to continue to mope in silence and lick his metaphorical wounds.

There are, as he expected, entirely too many missed calls from Nie Huaisang, a handful of non-urgent emails mixed in with the spam messages that always crowd his inbox, and, at the end of list, from just half an hour ago, an unusually long text from Nie Mingjue.

Mingjue:

Hello Meng Yao, this is Lan Xichen. I apologize for contacting you from Mingjue’s phone but he seemed to feel that it would be more comfortable for you than giving me your number directly without your permission - I hope that is the case. 

He has informed me of the high points of your argument from earlier this afternoon and I would be grateful if you would allow me an opportunity to offer an apology for the difficulties my arrival has put you through in person.

There is also a personal matter that Mingjue and I would like to discuss with you if would allow us to. I have been informed that you spend Sunday mornings with Huaisang - would it be possible tomorrow for you to come to the Nie home afterwards to sit down and talk with us? It will be with the intent to clear the air between the three of us as quickly and painlessly as possible. I have no desire to step between you and Mingjue, and I feel there are things the three of us could discuss to that effect that will be helpful for avoiding future friction.

Meng Yao blinks at that, rereads it a few times, and then looks up to stare blankly at the unadorned wall of his living room across from the couch. Before he can think himself in enough circles to change his own mind, he replies.

Me:

I’ll be there at 1pm.

[PREVIOUS] [NEXT]

#the untamed fanfic #3zun #Nie Mingjue #Lan Xichen #Meng Yao #Nie Huaisang #Modern AU #once again I need to beg forgiveness for my way too liberal use of italics #I just think MY would use a lot of emphasis when he gets heated alright #also - I know that in canon MY would never argue with NMJ like this #but their dynamic in a modern AU (in my opinion) gives MY a bit more freedom to vent his frustration #And oh boy is he frustrated #he's tired and jealous and feels like a spurned lover now that LXC is in the picture he's Done #also - crybaby da-ge rights #I saw littlesmartart's comic about it and I watched fatal journey finally and I am STICKING TO IT

[robininthelabyrinth]

Mo Xuanyu is banished from Koi Tower, but manages to take Wen Ning (or maybe a captured Nie Mingjue, your choice) with him. Now he has to figure out what to do with a well known fierce corpse. [🎶🎶 anon]

Crybabies - ao3

“Okay,” Xue Yang said, looking up at the ceiling with an expression that suggested he wanted to kill something and probably would, very soon. “What are you crying about now?”

“I don’t have any friends,” Mo Xuanyu explained. Xue Yang wasn’t allowed to kill him – Jin Guangyao said it would be politically inconvenient – so he felt moderately safe around the other man.

“What am I?” Xue Yang said. “Dirt?”

“Way too scary to be friends with someone like me.”

“…good point,” Xue Yang said. “You are kind of pathetic. A real crybaby.”

Mo Xuanyu was pretty used to statements like this.

“Actually,” Xue Yang said, and smiled. “That gives me an idea.”

-

Mo Xuanyu did not like Xue Yang’s idea.

“I don’t want these types of friends!” he wailed at the door, then, sniffling, turned around. “No offense meant.”

The two fierce corpses stared back at him.

“I’m sure you’re very nice,” Mo Xuanyu said, voice wavering. “Just very, uh…dead.”

Xue Yang cackled from outside the door. “I even took out their controls, just for you!” he sang out. “All the crybabies together in a single room. Have fun!”

And then his footsteps went away.

Shaking, sniffling, Mo Xuanyu turned to look at the two fierce corpses. It turned out they were chained to the wall, which was a bit of a relief.

“…are you the other crybabies?” he asked, curiosity temporarily overwhelming him. There was no one else in the room but them, but it seemed implausible.

Implausible, but apparently correct: tears started dripping down the face of one of the corpses.

“I want to go home,” he said, sounding genuinely miserable.

Mo Xuanyu looked at the other corpse.

“I want to go to his home,” he said, ducking his head and stuttering a little. He didn’t cry, but his eyes wrinkled up, like he wanted to but couldn’t. “It sounds nice.”

Mo Xuanyu had never heard of a home that sounded nice before.

“What’s it like?” he asked.

-

Mo Xuanyu really hated disappointing people.

It sometimes felt like he’d never done anything else: disappointed his mother when his father lost interest in him and stopped visiting, disappointed his aunt and her family by existing, disappointed his father after he turned out to be useless after he’d gone to all the effort of bringing him back to Lanling City, disappointed his teachers, disappointed his half-brother Jin Guangyao, disappointed – everyone, really.

So when he heard that he was probably going to get kicked out of Lanling, it wasn’t really a surprise. He’d long outworn his welcome, after all.

But then he also heard that they planned to send him back to Mo Manor and just – no.

He couldn’t.

He’d just have to disappoint everyone one more time.

“I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to do this,” Wen Ning said, rubbing his wrists as if it would help return the circulation he didn’t have. “Friends or no friends.”

“They said I was going to have to go home,” Mo Xuanyu said, shivering from terror at the mere thought. “I don’t want to go back to my home. I want to go to his home.”

A-Jue wiped his eyes with his sleeve and sniffed. He was the biggest crybaby of the lot of them, but it wasn’t his fault; according to Wen Ning, he’d lost a big part of his memory and higher order thinking skills when he’d become a fierce corpse and spent any time that he wasn’t murdering people in a crazy frenzy of rage on Jin Guangyao’s orders at the mental age of about seven or eight.

It also didn’t help that, out of the three of them, he was Jin Guangyao’s favorite.

It was not a good thing, being Jin Guangyao’s favorite.  

“We’re going home?” he asked, looking between them, watery eyes and all. “Will Sangsang be there?”

“Maybe?” Mo Xuanyu said, and looked at Wen Ning, who shrugged helplessly. Neither of them had any younger siblings, and Wen Ning hadn’t known anything about politics long before he’d died; he’d been in the dark rather deliberately. “Hopefully.”

“We should try to avoid being seen,” Wen Ning said wisely. “I have an idea.”

-

“This cart stinks,” A-Jue mumbled, knees pulled to his chest. Even folded up, he was nearly as big as Mo Xuanyu was stretched out. “I hate radishes.”

“I hate radishes too,” Wen Ning said. He looked like he wished he could cry, looking at them, but then again he looked like that a lot; he’d been the first one brought back, so he hadn’t kept the ability to actually shed tears, which was awful and unfair and something they’d have to fix as soon as they had some time and weren’t being chased.

“This was your idea,” Mo Xuanyu pointed out.

“I said it’d work, I didn’t say we’d enjoy it,” Wen Ning said, and Mo Xuanyu had to admit he had a point. No one would look for two fierce corpses and one runaway teenager in the back of a radish cart, and the farmer driving them in the general direction of Qinghe had been more than happy to accept some gold in exchange for not saying a word about them.

(“How d’you know I won’t take your money and sell you out anyway?” he’d asked before they set out.

“Because if you did, we’d prioritize ripping your throat out before we got captured?” Wen Ning suggested. Mo Xuanyu elbowed A-Jue, who obligingly stretched out his hand to demonstrate the length of his reach, the strength of his arm, and the length of his sharp nails.

“…good reason.”)

The ride only got them a day or so of travel north before the farmer had to make a turn that led him further away from Qinghe rather than towards, but they were in the countryside, not a city, and that was already something.

“We can make the rest by foot,” Wen Ning decided, and A-Jue put Mo Xuanyu on his back so that he wouldn’t slow them down. It was surprisingly comfortable. “I hope you’re right about your sect, A-Jue.”

“I am,” A-Jue said. “Sangsang will be there. He’ll know what to do.”

“Isn’t he only two years old?” Mo Xuanyu asked suspiciously.

“If I’m big, he’s big,” A-Jue pointed out. “And if I’m dead, he’s sect leader. It’ll be fine.”

-

Mo Xuanyu was nominated to be the one to go in and try to get an audience with the sect leader of Qinghe on account of him being the only one not dead.

It was a very compelling argument.

He got into the main city without a problem, gate or no gate, and then walked up to one of the guards outside the main clan complex. “Uh,” he said, fidgeting. “How do I get to see the sect leader?”

The guards looked at him in pity.

“Tell us what you want him for and we can direct you to the appropriate person to help you,” one of them said, not without kindness.

“I’m pretty sure the sect leader is the appropriate person, though…”

“Maybe you haven’t heard,” the other said. “But Sect Leader Nie isn’t actually good at anything.”

“I’m supposed to find him,” Mo Xuanyu said stubbornly. “Just him.”

“Kid. Listen. It’s not happening.”

Mo Xuanyu knew he’d screw this up. “Can you at least pass on a message?” he said hopelessly. “Tell Sangsang that I have something he’d be interested in –”

“Hold up,” the first guard said. “Sangsang?”

“…isn’t that his name?”

The two guards looked at each other. “Maybe you should go in,” the second one said.

“In fact,” the first one said. “We’re going to insist on it.”

-

“Please stop crying,” the young man with the fan and the frills said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’m under arrest!” Mo Xuanyu howled, tears and snot streaming down his face. “I’ve never been under arrest before!”

“I’m pretty sure that was just an overreaction,” the young man said soothingly. “They didn’t really arrest you, they were just being mean and exaggerating. Weren’t they?”

He looked at the two guards by the door, and Mo Xuanyu followed his gaze.

They both nodded.

“Sorry,” one of them said.

“Didn’t mean it,” the other said.

“Big mistake.”

“Won’t happen again.”

“Do you accept their apology?” the young man said, and Mo Xuanyu nodded. “Good, good. Now go – no, not you, them. You stay where you are.”

Mo Xuanyu sheepishly sat back down.

“Now,” the young man said, putting his elbows on the table. “You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?”

“Uh, maybe?” Mo Xuanyu said. “I was at the Jin sect for a while, but they kicked me out.”

The young man blinked, then his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Oh,” he said. “I see. No wonder you’re scared of getting arrested.”

Mo Xuanyu wasn’t sure he understood the connection. Wasn’t being arrested scary everywhere?

“Different question,” the young man said. He was playing with his fan in his hands and not really looking at Mo Xuanyu directly, which was a relief; it made him feel like the other man didn’t really care that much about the answer. “The Nie sect leader…who told you he was called Sangsang?”

“Uh,” Mo Xuanyu said. “It’s a bit complicated. You see, he doesn’t remember things very well, but A-Jue said –”

The fan snapped in two in the young man’s suddenly clenched hands.

-

It turned out that Nie Huaisang – that was the sect leader’s actual name – was just as much of a crybaby as the rest of them, which he really should have made clear from the beginning. Mo Xuanyu wouldn’t have been nearly as afraid of him if he’d known that.

As it was, he was still hugging a somewhat confused A-Jue (mostly marveling at how large his Sangsang had gotten) and crying his heart out while blubbering a whole lot of incoherent things, so Wen Ning patted the ground next to him and Mo Xuanyu went to sit.

“Is this a good sign?” he checked, and Wen Ning nodded.

“The Nie sect is pretty strong,” he said. “They’ll be able to protect us. Well, the two of you, anyway, I don’t know about me –”

“I don’t think surnames are really the most important thing right now,” Nie Huaisang said, finally pulling away and wiping his red eyes. “You helped bring my da-ge back home; you can stay as long as you like.”

“It really is a nice home,” Mo Xuanyu whispered to Wen Ning, who looked a little impressed.

“I told you,” A-Jue said proudly. He still had an arm wrapped around Nie Huaisang and wasn’t letting go – they’d offered to help Nie Huaisang out of his grip earlier, but he’d politely refused – and he seemed to be settling in very well to his older brother role. It was a bit strange to adjust to, but he was still A-Jue in the end. “I have the best home.”

“It’s nice enough,” Nie Huaisang said, still a bit teary-eyed. “Right. Enough feelings. I need you to tell me everything you remember about your time in Lanling.”

“…everything?” Mo Xuanyu said.

“Everything relevant,” Nie Huaisang clarified.

“You’re not going to like it,” Wen Ning said.

“Probably not, no. Tell me anyway.”

-

Mo Xuanyu patted Nie Huaisang on the back as he started trying to throw up again – it was all bile and dry heaves by now. It was a human failing that they shared, and the fierce corpses didn’t, although they were sympathetic enough.

“It’s not that bad,” Wen Ning offered. “We’re not really – awake, during much of it. The worst parts.”

That didn’t seem to help.

“He mostly only got mad at me,” A-Jue said, hovering anxiously. “He didn’t like that I didn’t remember him. Said it was no fun. So he didn’t spend that much time with me.”

“I hate him,” Nie Huaisang said. His voice was raspy, his eyes red, and he looked a little bit scary. “I’m going to destroy him.”

“Okay,” A-Jue said at once, because he was a big old softie as well as a crybaby. “We can destroy him. No problem. Just don’t be sad, Sangsang.”

Nie Huaisang’s lip trembled, which rather destroyed the scary effect. “Okay, da-ge,” he said. “I won’t be sad. You’re going to stay here at home with me, and then we’ll focus on making you better, okay?”

“Uh,” Wen Ning said.

“Not the corpse thing,” Nie Huaisang clarified. “The – memory thing.”

“You can fix that?” Mo Xuanyu said, surprised. “How? Senior Jin and Senior Xue both tried really hard and couldn’t manage it.”

“Yes, well,” Nie Huaisang said, and rubbed his eyes. “They don’t know that da-ge was a little kid the first time he picked up Baxia. I think that dying cut off his connection to her, and that she kept everything that was – you know – after. So maybe reconnecting them…”

“That means you’ll be grown up again!” Mo Xuanyu said to A-Jue, who seemed pleased. “That’s great.”

“I’m going to need your help, though,” Nie Huaisang said. He was mostly looking at Wen Ning. “No matter what da-ge says, you helped do – a lot of things, and if we’re going to bring down Jin Guangyao…I’m going to need help.”

“We’ll help you,” Mo Xuanyu said, and Wen Ning nodded. “I mean, we’re not – really helpful. We’re kind of all a bunch of crybabies. But whatever we can do, we will!”

“I appreciate that,” Nie Huaisang said. “Also, don’t underestimate crybabies.”

He smiled.

“We’re a lot more dangerous than you might think.”

#mdzs #mo xuanyu #xue yang #nie mingjue #wen ning #nie huaisang #my fic #my fics #crybabies #Anonymous

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt~ hoping you'll like it ♥️

Things between the Nie brothers are not always nice and happy, they fight, just like any other pair of brothers, and sometimes things are said, sometimes these things are heavy and painful. Sometimes they're said in the wrong moment (maybe at the eve of a battle? Sunshot campaign?) and huaisang doesn't know what to do with the broken look his brother gives him before leaving the unclean realm. Because what if he doesn't return? What if the last thing he said to him was how much he hated the man he became?

Labyrinth - ao3

“But I didn’t mean to wish him away!” Nie Huaisang cried out.

“That’s really too bad,” the goblin king said, looking pleasant and humble and charming the way he always did, even in his cape of glittering gold and high-browed hat. “I wish there was something I could do for you, but the rules are the rules. You wished him away, and I took him.”

“Aren’t you supposed to only take babies?” Nie Huaisang demanded.

“Your brother’s enough of a crybaby to count, it’s close enough.”

“It is not!” Nie Huaisang wrung his hands. “You don’t understand, the last thing I said to him was that I hated him! Meng Yao, please!”

“It’s Jin Guangyao,” the goblin king corrected. His smile looked a bit strained. “Listen, do you think I’m happy about this? He’s my sworn brother! I’m only doing what I have to –”

“Oh, save it for Lan Xichen,” Nie Huaisang growled. “Show me the labyrinth already.”

“You’re going to face the labyrinth,” the goblin king said. His voice was very polite, and yet still expressed significant doubt. “You.”

“Yeah, me!”

“You remember that it goes ‘through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered’, right? Not ‘through a nice teacher and a forgiving grading system’?”

“Yeah, well, your father is a fragging aardvark. Let me at the labyrinth already!”

-

“You know what,” Nie Huaisang said thoughtfully. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

The life-sized animated puppet blinked at him. “You – don’t want my help?”

“Nope. I’m good.”

“You haven’t even gotten into the labyrinth yet!”

“It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t have a chance to get in,” Nie Huaisang said, patting around his sleeve and pulling out a fan. “So I’m just going to walk over and beat at the wall till something happens.”

The puppet followed him, staring blankly. Quite a change from his original apologetic ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy with my own things, I really can’t help you, also it’s too dangerous and you shouldn’t go’ response.

“You were blackmailing me to help you just a moment ago,” the puppet said after a little. “Don’t you need a guide?”

“Listen, I’m bad at memorizing things and I’m a little useless, but I’m not actually dumb,” Nie Huaisang said, fanning himself. “Jin Guangyao is a demon of the mind above all else, and the labyrinth is supposed to be ‘fair’ – which means, more than likely, that the labyrinth is a reflection of the subconscious, specially tailored to each person’s strengths and weaknesses. And that means that you, who sound exactly like Lan Xichen, are almost certainly a set-up sent by Jin Guangyao to ‘reluctantly’ aid me and then betray me.”

“Uh,” Lan Xichen-the-puppet said. “My name’s Hoggle, actually.”

“Whatever makes you feel better, er-ge…A-ha!” Nie Huaisang beamed at the gates that automatically opened. “Perfect!”

-

“Oh, don’t go that way,” the worm said. “Never go that way. And are you sure you don’t want to come in for a cup of tea?”

“No time,” Nie Huaisang said. “Thanks a lot – wait.”

The worm blinked at him.

“You’re a pretty attractive worm, in a slimy sort of way,” Nie Huaisang said, frowning at him.

The worm blinked again. “Why, thanks!”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Is your name Su She, by chance?”

“Definitely not!”

“Mm. Oddly vehement of you. Never mind. Just, quick, could you tell me exactly why do I not want to go that way?”

-

“I don’t suppose straight ahead is an option?”

The hands-faces stared at him.

“I’m just saying, I feel like most of my problems so far have come from the fact that I decided to accept the whole concept of turns. It seems like a mistake.”

“…it’s a labyrinth,” another set of the hands said. “You have to make turns!”

Nie Huaisang shook his head mournfully. “I should’ve brought Baxia or something and just – ZIP. Gone straight through. You know what I mean?”

“I’m dropping you in the oubliette regardless of your decision,” the first set of the hands said. It sounded a bit like Sect Leader Yao. “Just so you know.”

“My life is so hard,” Nie Huaisang sighed. “So hard! Do you know what it’s like to be overlooked by everyone? Do you know how hard I have to work at being this useless?”

“Drop him,” the set of hands that sounded like Sect Leader Ouyang said, and the set of hands that sounded like Sect Leader Yao said, “Yes. Now!”

Down Nie Huaisang went.

-

“I can take you back to the beginning of the labyrinth,” Lan Xichen offered.

“What, and waste all that time? I have a time limit, er-ge!”

“It’s better than being stuck in an oubliette. That’s where they put people to forget about them, you know.”

Nie Huaisang’s eyes filled with tears. “You want to forget me, er-ge? You think I’m useless, don’t you? A good-for-nothing, who’ll never amount to anything –”

“Please don’t cry.”

“ER-GE! WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME!”

“Please stop crying!”

-

“So what’s the point of you?” Nie Huaisang asked the Wise Man with the Talking Hat.

“Not everyone exists to contribute to your storyline,” the Talking Hat snapped at him. “Some of us’ve got our own problems. Now hand over the candy!”

“Don’t be mean,” the Wise Man said. He had a white cloth over his eyes, and was smiling like he found the hat funny.

“Awww, but daozhang…!”

“Different plotline entirely, I guess,” Nie Huaisang decided. “Probably just here as a foil. Shall we keep going, er-ge?”

“I can’t believe you scammed me to get out of the oubliette,” Lan Xichen mumbled. “I can’t believe…”

-

“Oh, leave him alone, he’s just sensitive!” Nie Huaisang snapped.

“Am not!” the upside-down creature snarled, curled up on itself and trying to hide from all those that had been hitting him. Its fur was a vivid sort of purple. “Go away!”

“Don’t you have some sort of special power to help you here,” Nie Huaisang asked him as he tried to get him down before the goblins came back with weapons. “Rocks, maybe?”

“…lightning?”

“Well then get to it, will you?” Nie Huaisang frowned. “Wait. Lightning, constantly being tormented, terrible at communication, and purple? You’re Jiang Cheng, aren’t you?”

“…maybe.”

“Well then get down faster! I need to copy someone’s notes here!”

-

“Leave me aloooooooone!” Nie Huaisang howled, running away from the measuring snake.

-

“Wow,” Lan Xichen said, holding his cheek. “You kissed me.”

“You saved me from the snakes,” Nie Huaisang said. “Can we focus on how we’re in this awful stinking bog?”

“It’s not that bad!” a voice piped up. “I don’t smell anything!”

Nie Huaisang turned to stare, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course you don’t,” he said. “I bet the total absence of a sense of smell helps when you eat spicy food, Wei-xiong.”

“There’s nothing wrong with spicy food!”

“You’re short,” Nie Huaisang informed the small goblin-like creature with the big grin and the red ribbon in its hair. It looked vaguely fox-like, or possibly like certain large breeds of rabbit.

“Why you..!” Wei Wuxian crossed his furry little paws over his chest. “Just for that, I’m not going to help you.”

“Uh-huh,” Nie Huaisang said. “Really. That’s awful…oh no! A dog!”

Wei Wuxian jumped high into the air. “A dog?! Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan! Save me!”

Much to Nie Huaisang’s surprise, a furry dog immediately darted out of nowhere – only Wei Wuxian didn’t seem afraid of it, but rather hid behind it, teeth chattering.

Truly, Nie Huaisang reflected, the eyes of love are blind.

“I think the ‘dog’ is gone now,” he said. “Your brave and noble Lan Wangji must’ve scared him away.”

Wei Wuxian’s head popped out from behind dog-Wangji. “Well, Lan Zhan is really cool…hey. Are you trying to manipulate me?”

“Is it working?”

“No!”

“So you won’t help me?”

“No!”

“Not even if it means you get to figure out a really tricky puzzle?”

“No – wait. A puzzle?”

“I can’t believe this is going to work,” Lan Xichen muttered from behind Nie Huaisang. “I mean, I can. But also…Wangji…I love you, but you could do so much better than this.”

-

“Ugh,” Nie Huaisang said. “I’m so thirsty.”

“Have some Emperor’s Smile,” Lan Xichen said, offering a jar.

“Amazing,” Nie Huaisang said, accepting it and taking a swing. “I had my doubts, you know, but you’re actually good for something after all, er-ge –”

-

The golden bird was Nie Huaisang’s favorite.

He’d worked so hard to bring it back to his aviary – it couldn’t be forced, he knew; it would play along at first but in the end it would turn on you and bite you. It had to be coaxed with gentleness and kindness, approached indirectly so as not to spook it, convince it that you really did mean well – that you were harmless, that it had no reason to fear you. It was arrogant, too, proud of its shining feathers and ashamed of the brown plumage of its chick days, which still remained visible on its tender underbelly. Ironically, that was Nie Huaisang’s favorite part of it, the soft and gentle part; it might not be as pretty as the gold, but it felt more genuine.

Nie Huaisang smiled as he brushed the beautiful feathers, and the golden bird allowed him. He felt cherished, treasured. So what if he had to hide all the sharp parts of himself to get this close?

It was fine. He didn’t like to be sharp.

He wanted to be soft. Soft and gentle, careless and free, relaxed and without effort, good for nothing –

Wait.

No!

-

“It’s all junk,” Nie Huaisang hissed at the pile of burning fans, tears in his eyes. “I want my da-ge!”

-

“You’re all right!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, helping pulled Nie Huaisang up.

“Huaisang-xiong,” Jiang Cheng said, looking relieved. “You’re back.”

“We have to go to the temple beyond the Goblin City,” Nie Huaisang said, teeth gritted together. “We have to. I won’t let that bastard…we’re going to go there and throw all his damned tricks right in his face!”

“Just us?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I mean, I’m awesome, Lan Zhan is fantastic, and of course Jiang Cheng is great, too, but…uh…there’s a lot of goblins in the city.”

“We’ll sneak in,” Nie Huaisang said. “He thinks he’s sidelined me entirely – he thinks I’m useless. He won’t be expecting me to get this far.”

“I can get help,” Jiang Cheng said. “I have friends.”

“…not to be rude, Jiang-xiong,” Nie Huaisang said. “But – really?”

-

“You know what,” Nie Huaisang said, eyeing the pile of rocks following Jiang Cheng around, each one painted with a name. One of the names was yellow. Two were in white, with forehead ribbons. “This is fine. I feel like it says something really rude about my empathy for and interest in our junior generation, or lack thereof, but you know what? I don’t care. It’s fine.”

-

“You saved me,” Nie Huaisang said blankly, looking at Lan Xichen, who shrugged, abashed. The remains of the mechanical temple guard were scattered all over. “Over – him?”

“Huaisang –”

“No,” Nie Huaisang said, holding up his hands. “Don’t. Don’t…I don’t want to hear you talk.”

Lan Xichen’s head dropped down and he looked at the ground. “You knew from the beginning what I was like,” he murmured. “I never tried to hide it –”

“I forgive you for being what you are,” Nie Huaisang told him, and Lan Xichen looked up at him, startled and pleased. “I forgive you for not having the backbone to stand up against Jin Guangyao for me – or for da-ge. For being willfully blind for so long, for needing someone else’s proof of his ill-intentions, for always picking him first, for never trusting me…I forgive you, even if you’d never forgive me for the same.”

He dashed away the angry tears in his eyes.

“I just wish this wasn’t a fucking metaphor.”

-

Nie Huaisang left the fighting to the people who knew what to do – Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, even the rock-juniors – and went to the temple at the center of the city alone.

Some things, he knew, needed to be done alone, even if it was the type of alone when you were surrounded by other people. Even when those other people stood by his side and made him promise that if he needed them, he would only need to call. Some things…

“I want my da-ge back,” he said to the maze of stairs.

“Then go and find him,” Jin Guangyao replied, looking smug, and Nie Huaisang had to go up and down all those fucking stairs, because Jin Guangyao was nothing if not predictable with his trauma, looking all over, looking for –

Looking for pieces.

“It’s just a metaphor,” he whispered to himself, ignoring how tears were streaming down his face. “It’s just – I need to put him back together, it’s fine. I’m not too late – I’m not too late –”

-

Jin Guangyao held Nie Mingjue’s head in his hands, blinded and gagged and bound with talismans, pulled out of whatever oubliette he'd shoved it into to forget about what he'd done. “Beware, Huaisang,” he said, still smiling. Always smiling. “I’ve been generous up until now, but I can be cruel.”

Nie Huaisang laughed, scoffing. “Generous? What have you done for me that’s generous?”

“Everything! Everything you’ve wanted, I’ve done – I cared for you, I gave you attention, I got you out of work, doing your schoolwork for you and coming up with excuses to get you out of saber training. I gave you presents, fans and pretty clothing, and when that brute of a brother of yours tried to take them from you, I rescued you. And then I even managed your sect for you, answered all of your questions, any time you had – Huaisang, I’m exhausted trying to live up to your expectations of me. Isn’t that generous?”

Nie Huaisang bared his teeth. “Half of those are burdens that only fell on me because of you. Why should it matter to me that cleaning up your own mess and satisfying your own guilt is hard? Why should I pay such a price when all I wanted was to be your friend? When all da-ge wanted was to be your friend? How dare you, Meng Yao!”

“Huaisang…” Jin Guangyao shook his head mournfully. “Huaisang, the last step here is to say the words to break the spell. But you were never good at memorization, were you?”

Nie Huaisang bit his lip until he drew blood.

“Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered,” he said. “I have fought my way here to the temple beyond the goblin city –”

“Huaisang, stop! Look at what you’re risking here. You know how everyone loves me – do you think anyone will forgive you for taking me down, for tricking them all? You’ll be all alone!”

I already am, Nie Huaisang thought.

“My will is as strong as yours,” he said. “And my kingdom is as great…”

His voice trailed off.

“I ask for so little,” Jin Guangyao said beseechingly, convincingly, looking just like he always did, like the man who'd been their friend. “Just let me fool you, and you can have anything you want. No responsibilities, no stress, a life of your own. You can even have Lan Xichen, if that’s what you want…”

What’s the last line, Nie Huaisang thought, hating himself for being such a poor student, for cramming things into his mind without any order, for never being able to retain a single drop of it no matter how hard he tried. What is it? Why can’t I ever remember?

“It’d be so easy,” Jin Guangyao crooned. “Much easier than this. Just fear me, love me, believe me, and I’ll be your slave.”

Sharp teeth in a false smile.

Nie Huaisang shook in terror. He couldn’t – his da-ge needed him – he couldn’t be afraid, couldn’t be a coward, couldn’t be good-for-nothing – couldn’t let Jin Guangyao win – couldn’t let him –

That was it.

Nie Huaisang raised his head until his eyes met his enemy’s.

Sensing something wrong, Jin Guangyao’s eternal smile dimmed, and he began to step forward, reaching out, but it was too late.

“You have no power over me,” Nie Huaisang declared, and the world within a world collapsed.

-

Nie Huaisang opened his eyes.

-

Nie Huaisang sat in his desk in the Unclean Realm, trying to amuse himself by trying to figure out what exactly he’d eaten the night before that had given him such bizarre dreams. It was not successful, on account of him being alone.

Alone, just as he had been every night, and every day as well, since the success of his scheme at the Guanyin Temple.

Just as the dream-Jin Guangyao had threatened.

It wasn’t that Nie Huaisang regretted what he had done – the dream was clear enough about that; he’d do it all again in a heartbeat if he had to. But in the dream he’d been working alongside his former friends, with Lan Xichen betraying but then returning to him, with Wei Wuxian dragging Lan Wangji around, with stone-faced Jiang Cheng and the rather interchangeable junior squad behind him…and in his dream, in the end, they’d let him go to take his revenge, telling him that if he needed them for any reason, he could just call.

Just call, and they’d come back to him. Instead of turning from him in disgust, they’d stand by his side…

“Stupid subconscious,” Nie Huaisang mumbled to himself. “What do you expect? That I'd write to them and say ‘for no real reason at all, I find that I rather need you’?”

Silence answered him.

“Well, I do,” he said with a sigh, putting his chin on his hands. “Does that make you happy? I do need you.”

“You do?” Wei Wuxian’s voice rang out, and Nie Huaisang jumped nearly out of his skin. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”

Nie Huaisang turned, staring: it was Wei Wuxian at the door, the human version of him, and of course there was Lan Wangji right before him, and Jiang Cheng, and the (still mostly interchangeable) juniors, and – and even Lan Xichen, who Nie Huaisang was sure had gone into seclusion with no intent to leave.

“What are you doing here?” Nie Huaisang squeaked. And why hadn’t any of his sect disciples warned him?

“We just bullied our way though the door before anyone could stop us,” Wei Wuxian said cheerfully, answering the unspoken question first. “As for the rest – it turns out that I had the strangest dream the other night, really, truly bizarre, and obviously I had to tell Lan Zhan all about it, except it turned out he had a strange dream too.”

Nie Huaisang’s jaw dropped. “But –”

“I felt da-ge’s qi woven into the labyrinth,” Lan Xichen said quietly. “I thought it’d have long ago dissipated or been locked away, but – it was there, in every stone, in every turn. Every obstacle that didn’t really hurt you, every goblin that was more silly than scary…he was there. It was unmistakable.”

Nie Huaisang swallowed. The story of the labyrinth, baby-stealing wish-granting goblin king and all, had been one that Nie Mingjue had told him as a bedtime story, when he'd been a child in need of comfort; he hadn’t thought of it in years before last night. “But…why…?”

“Because Chifeng-zun has a demented sense of humor?” Jiang Cheng suggested, looking irritated.

“Jiujiu means that he hasn’t had that much fun in years, and also that you should throw a party,” Jin Ling said. “You are hosting all three of the sect leaders of all the other Great Sects. Also, why were we rocks?”

“Uh, no idea,” Nie Huaisang said. “Da-ge’s weird sense of humor, no doubt! Anyway, did you say party? I can do a party!”

He rushed out of the room, calling for his servants, calling for them to bring food and wine and tea, and as he did, he looked out of the window – a golden bird was flying away, looking hunted as if something was chasing it, and even as he watched, it crossed the borders of the Unclean Realm and suddenly dissolved into a fizzle of golden dust.

Nie Huaisang put his hand on the stone wall, and felt a familiar echo.

A very familiar echo.

“Oh,” he said, to his servants, feeling somehow simultaneously sheepish and filled with joy. “And while you’re at it, can you bring me my saber? I seem to have – misplaced it…”

#mdzs #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #lan xichen #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan wangji #su she #sect leader yao #sect leader ouyang #xiao xingchen #xue yang #my fic #my fics #labyrinth