Chapter Text
Jiang Cheng doesn't immediately take his sister's advice. Not yet. It's hard to find words that feel right, even to himself, and “Maybe we should talk about feelings after all” is not the sort of conversation you just start with a text. He does, however, find himself messaging Lan Jingyi more often, even without plans, just to talk.
Then, halfway through an infuriating meeting with a couple who can't come to an agreement about a single element of their wedding, he snaps his portfolio shut, startling them both into silence.
"I can see this isn't going to be productive," he says harshly. "Why don't we take a break while you talk it out? I'll come back in half an hour." Then he stalks out of the room, letting the door swing shut behind him.
He locks himself in a single-occupancy bathroom and then leans against the door, trying to stave off the headache encroaching on his temples. He's messaging Jingyi almost before he thinks about it.
What are you doing this evening?
Labwork until Prof Qiu kicks me out
Why?
You're not surprising me with a sudden appearance at Yunshen are you, soulmate? ;) ;)
No. Pingyang today
Oooooooh a Yao wedding??
My condolences
Jiang Cheng smirks at his phone.
Isn't gossip forbidden in the Cloud Recesses
Technically yes
But if my soulmate needs to vent
Surely this counts as being a supportive partner & not engaging in gossip :P
Jiang Cheng feels the tension wash out of him at that text; not all of it, but enough. There's a warmth in his chest at the realization that after a little over a year, Lan Jingyi knows him well enough to read between the lines of his terse texts and recognize what he's really asking for. It gives him the courage to ask directly:
So video call at 8, then?
You got it, Cheng Ge!!
This is accompanied by a sticker of Lan Jingyi's own grinning face superimposed on some kind of dancing... rabbit cartoon? It looks excited, at any rate.
Prof Qiu's gonna be so happy that she doesn't have to kick me out of the lab today after all 🤣
Don't cause any explosions
Right back at you!!
Not even if they deserve it
Jiang Cheng splashes water on his face, then heads outside to take a walk for the remainder of the half hour he gave the couple, but it's looking forward to seeing Lan Jingyi that fortifies him to go back in and grit his teeth through the rest of the godawful meeting. Fucking Yaos.
That evening, he sets his laptop up on the foot of his bed in the guest quarters the Pingyang Yao sect allotted him. It’s a comfortable enough bed and there’s a profusion of pillows, so he’s able to stick a few of them under the laptop to give it a little more height and avoid a too weird camera angle. He feels oddly nervous about this video call, even though he’s the one who suggested it.
When the call connects and Lan Jingyi appears on his screen, though, hair all messy like he’s spent the day running his hands through it, Jiang Cheng feels the tension bleed out of his spine. “Hey there,” Lan Jingyi says. “You look like you had a day.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Jiang Cheng grumbles. He gives him a brief recap of his frustrating, awful afternoon, the frustrating bickering couple and Sect Leader Yao, and the frustrating complete lack of progress. “Tell me about your day, though," he says eventually. "I wanna talk about something that doesn’t make me want to punch through a wall.”
Lan Jingyi laughs and regales him with the latest woes of his thesis progress, a section of code that somehow deletes itself whenever it executes and rewrites random lines around it, throwing truly bizarre errors in the process. “It’s like the program itself is haunted?” Lan Jingyi says, sounding fascinated despite his frustration. “I’ve joked about performing an exorcism on my computer before, but I genuinely think we might have to this time. Thank goodness the machine I’m working on is firewalled from the rest of the network; I don’t want to think about the havoc this thing could cause if it got out into the wider world.”
“If our ancestors could see us now,” Jiang Cheng says, shaking his head. The stuff Lan Jingyi works on uses cultivation in innovative ways he’s never even thought about, and Jiang Cheng could listen to him talk about it all day. Lan Jingyi has a way of explaining even the most esoteric bits of his work that’s accessible and engaging. Plus, Jiang Cheng thinks, not for the first time, he’s absolutely gorgeous when he’s excited.
“Oh, I know, right?” Lan Jingyi enthuses, hands in motion and eyes lively, captivating even over a video connection. “Like—someone in our department is trying to figure out if you can channel qi over the internet so you could use those wifi-connected sex toys for dual cultivation. I can’t imagine explaining that to Grandmaster Lan, much less to any of the ancient cultivators who wrote all that poetry about the Three Libations or Caressing the Moon Grotto.”
Jiang Cheng snorts. “I’d sooner spend another week listening to Sect Leader Yao brag about his son’s enviable qualities as a husband than utter the phrase ‘Moon Grotto’ to Grandmaster Lan.”
Lan Jingyi cackles at him, then asks, casual, “You ever tried it?”
“What, dual cultivation? No,” says Jiang Cheng, with a sudden suspicion of where this conversation might be going. “Have you?”
Lan Jingyi shakes his head. “Nah, it's not really a dating app hookup kinda thing, y'know?”
“More like a soulmate kinda thing, then?” Jiang Cheng asks wryly.
“Why, Jiang Wanyin,” Lan Jingyi replies, mock-scandalized, “are you propositioning me to engage in erotic cultivation rituals?”
Jiang Cheng turns the idea over for a minute. He may not have had anyone who felt right to try it with before, but he’s grown up hearing all the same jokes and seeing the same porn as any other young cultivator. He has even—because he is a grown man, a former (acting) sect leader, and someone who works intimately with couples planning their weddings on a regular basis—read the actual texts, ancient and modern, pertaining to sexual cultivation in all its many forms. More than the practical considerations though—he trusts Lan Jingyi. The thought of cultivating with him is exciting. “I am, yeah,” he says slowly, letting some of his own enthusiasm for the idea show as he smirks at Lan Jingyi through the screen. “And as the older and more experienced cultivator, I must insist we approach these erotic cultivation rituals the old-fashioned way.”
Lan Jingyi’s eyes grow wide with excitement and a little genuine surprise. “Oh wow,” he says. “I didn’t expect you’d actually wanna— Okay, yeah. That sounds— What should I do, then? To prepare, I mean, O Wise Senior.”
Jiang Cheng grins slowly. “Well, for one thing," he says, drawing out the syllables with relish, “it means you don't come until we get together next weekend. I’ll send you some exercises.” Lan Jingyi groans.
Lan Jingyi is beginning to regret suggesting this, because if Jiang Cheng edges him without letting him come one more time, he is literally going to die.
He’s been so good since their video call—eight whole days of “ejaculation management” exercises—and then Jiang Cheng peeled him out of his clothes approximately a million hours ago and has been torturing him ever since.
“Show me that Lan arm strength,” Jiang Cheng had said, goading him into a handstand. And while Lan Jingyi had been more than happy to comply, it was turning out to be a lot. Jiang Cheng had rubbed warm oil between his hands and then proceeded to tug and tap and squeeze at his ass and dick and balls in an absolutely maddening pattern. Like the exercises he’d had Lan Jingyi do, just when it starts actually getting good, Jiang Cheng backs off and waits for his erection to fade. Lan Jingyi has held a handstand longer, but his arms are shaking.
“Do I really have to be upside down for this part?” Lan Jingyi finally asks. “I’ve never seen that in any of the texts.”
“Oh, no,” says Jiang Cheng, insufferably smug, “I’ve just been wanting to try this—” and then he slides his mouth down over Lan Jingyi’s poor confused cock and swirls his tongue around the head. Lan Jingyi yelps and almost collapses. Jiang Cheng grips his hips and steadies him, sucking hard as his lips slide hot and tight up the slick length of his shaft.
The sudden change of pace leaves him reeling, and Lan Jingyi’s on the edge again almost immediately. “Fuck, fuck, fffffuuuck, holyshit Jiang Cheng, gonna come, gonna—”
Jiang Cheng pops off and presses down on his hui yin acupoint—that spot between his legs Lan Jingyi has spent far too much time getting acquainted with this past week—hard. "Motherfucking hell! Jiang Cheng, you asshole, fuck!!" Lan Jingyi can feel his dick twitch ridiculously as his body reels from yet another aborted orgasm.
Jiang Cheng, the asshole, laughs. "Lan Jingyi, I know you know how this works. We're building up your yang energy; you don't want to waste it, now do you?"
"I'll waste you if you don't let me down," Lan Jingyi grumbles. "Can't believe you made me do all that upside down."
"I kinda can't believe you went for it," Jiang Cheng replies, still laughing as he helps Lan Jingyi right himself.
"Yeah, well, I like you, for some reason, so." Lan Jingyi shrugs, biting his lip as he turns to face Jiang Cheng and hoping that's not too close to feelings talk. Jiang Cheng just reaches out to palm the side of his neck and strokes his thumb along his cheek.
He leans forward to press a kiss to Lan Jingyi's lips, quick and surprisingly gentle. "I'm glad you suggested this," Jiang Cheng says. "Let me stop teasing you and take care of you now."
He guides Lan Jingyi over to the bed and makes him drink a few sips of water before laying him down. Then he begins to massage more of the oil into Lan Jingyi's skin, starting at the fingertips of his left hand and working his way up towards his heart. Lan Jingyi can feel the tickle of Jiang Cheng's spiritual power, feather light as it slips through his skin and dances along his meridians. Lan Jingyi feels kind of floaty. "We couldn't have started with this part?" he jokes.
"We could've," Jiang Cheng admits, kneeling over Lan Jingyi's middle to start on the other arm, "but you were about ready to burst from anticipation when you first got here. I wasn't sure you'd have been able to stand me touching you for the energy work without coming." He cuts his eyes up to meet Lan Jingyi's. "The handstand wasn't just to be an asshole."
Lan Jingyi chuckles. "No, getting to be an asshole was just an added bonus."
"Now you're getting it," Jiang Cheng agrees, as he kisses over Lan Jingyi's heart, belly, and lower dantian, then moves down to work up from Lan Jingyi's feet. As Jiang Cheng works, Lan Jingyi becomes aware of the flow of qi through his body in the way he usually only feels during meditation. Everywhere Jiang Cheng has touched feels wide open in anticipation. He feels charged, energy building again and his heart beating faster, too, as Jiang Cheng reaches the apex of his thighs. He presses a kiss against his hui yin point, right at the root of Lan Jingyi, and begins to open him up. He's probably right that Lan Jingyi couldn't have taken this earlier, before he reminded his body of the rhythm of build and retreat. If Lan Jingyi's arousal is a wave, the amplitude has been getting larger and larger each time Jiang Cheng has brought him to the edge and back away again. It's like nothing Lan Jingyi has experienced before, and his excitement coils low and hot in his gut as Jiang Cheng makes his body open and receptive, not just physically but spiritually as well.
“Are you ready?” Jiang Cheng finally murmurs, eyes dark and intense where he kneels between Lan Jingyi's legs, one hand resting over his lower dantian and the other working Lan Jingyi's body, slick fingers in his ass and thumb rubbing tantalizing circles against his taint.
He’s definitely ready; he’s never been so ready. He’s sweating and panting. All his meridians are wide open.
“Do it, Cheng ge,” he gasps, and he does. The feeling of Jiang Cheng’s spiritual energy melding with his is so, so much. He whites out for a moment. It’s so intense. He’s seeing stars. They’re … purple. Purple stars all around his field of vision. He might be levitating. Oh— Uh, yeah. He’s definitely levitating. Holy fuck.
The flood of Jiang Cheng’s energy into his core is— It’s uniquely Jiang Cheng. Overwhelming, but unmistakably personal. Lan Jingyi can’t imagine this feeling with anybody else. It’s like when he steals bits of Jiang Cheng’s food, and gets a blast of Sichuan pepper—spicy, numbing, intense, exhilarating, but also as intimate as a tender caress. And now, that feeling is flowing through all of his meridians, through his whole body, through his whole being.
He feels like he could rip a monster to shreds with his bare hands. He feels like he could subdue an entire city of fierce corpses with a glance. Show him a fucking ghost RIGHT NOW and let him try. Does Jiang Cheng feel like this all the time?
"Jingyi, you okay?” Jiang Cheng is asking, somewhere in the distance.
“Good,” he gasps. “So good. Don’t you dare fucking stop.”
Jiang Cheng bites Lan Jingyi's lower abdomen, sending another burst of spiritual energy into his core through his teeth. His body is humming with it, bright and alive and like he might vibrate out of his skin as Jiang Cheng kisses up his torso and traces his hands along his meridians again, moving his spiritual energy through Lan Jingyi's body. "I feel you everywhere," gasps Lan Jingyi.
"That's perfect," Jiang Cheng says, the words breathless between kisses as though this is as intense for Jiang Cheng as it is for Lan Jingyi. "So perfect, you're doing so well, Jingyi." Lan Jingyi feels more than sees Jiang Cheng move his legs and line up his hips, and then he's whispering into his ear, "Now for the really fun part—pass it back," and he finally, finally slides inside Lan Jingyi's body.
Lan Jingyi can't help but kiss him. It's like a circuit completing, the final stroke of a talisman, every nerve and meridian lighting up and thrumming with energy, not just in his body, but in Jiang Cheng's too. He can feel inside Jiang Cheng, feel his muscles shift and his breath catch in his chest as their energies blend and merge and circulate through both their bodies. Feel, he realizes with a shock, the intimate grip of his own body around Jiang Cheng's cock, hot and slick and welcoming. He's penetrating and being penetrated, kissing and being kissed, so all-consuming and overwhelming, and so, so good. Their combined energy spirals through both of their bodies, winding higher and tighter until Lan Jingyi thinks they're surely going to ascend right there from the sheer bliss of it. Jiang Cheng moans into their kiss, or maybe it's Lan Jingyi, and he's coming, they're coming, but it's filling them up instead of spilling out, and, oh, gods, this might have almost killed him, but it was so, so worth it.
They break off the kiss with a gasp, and then they're Lan Jingyi and Jiang Cheng again, lying there shaking and sweaty and catching their breath. "Wow," Lan Jingyi says. Jiang Cheng chuckles and presses a kiss to his cheek as he gently slides out and rolls off Lan Jingyi to flop on his back beside him. The fingers of Lan Jingyi's left hand are still tangled loosely with Jiang Cheng's, neither of them ready to break the connection entirely.
"You're purple," Lan Jingyi says nonsensically. The spiritual energy they created and shared is still thrumming through Lan Jingyi’s body, and wow, he gets why people write poetry about this.
Jiang Cheng hums contentedly, sounding as blissed out as Lan Jingyi feels. "You feel like music," he offers back, and that's— that's fascinating. They lie there together, breathing and remembering how to be two bodies again, drowsy and sated as jing transmutes to qi and settles into their cores. Lan Jingyi's mind turns over thoughts of color and light and sound, all the ways spiritual energy can manifest and be channelled, all the things it can do, how it can be a tool to create or destroy, harm or heal. It's powerful and versatile, from the musical cultivation of the Lan to—
His brain is not totally back online, so the question just slips out. "Y'ever think about borrowing Zidian, for like, sexy reasons?"
Jiang Cheng rolls over to give him an incredulous, mildly horrified look. "That. What. I— No!" he splutters. "That was my mother's! And now it's jiejie's spiritual weapon, no, wow."
"Sorry! Sorry, oh gosh, I did not mean to say that, sorry!" Lan Jingyi hurriedly says. "That totally makes sense; I really did not mean to ask that. It's just— It's such a cool spiritual tool and it has such neat properties—like the whole possession disrupting thing? Awesome!—and purple's totally your color, like I said, and whips are kinda just objectively very sexy and, uh, I mean..." Lan Jingyi trails off as Jiang Cheng's expression softens into something fond and amused.
He huffs a little laugh and shakes his head. "No, I have not thought about using our cherished family heirloom as a sex toy," he says wryly. "I'm glad you think it's 'awesome,' though; I'll be sure never to tell jiejie you said that."
"Wow, yes, no, please do not share this conversation with Sect Leader Jiang, like, ever." Lan Jingyi laughs, relieved that Jiang Cheng is not freaking out about his totally inappropriate overshare and feeling some kinda way about the idea of Jiang Cheng discussing him with his sister. This particular topic would be mortifying, obviously, but in general, he likes the thought. A lot. He rolls over to face Jiang Cheng, propping his head up on his hand and asks the other question he's been wondering. “Do you miss it? Sect leadership? You're obviously a really strong cultivator, as I can now attest to firsthand."
Jiang Cheng grins at that, quick and bright and cocky. Then his expression turns serious, and he shakes his head. “No. I’m glad I can help my sister when she needs it, but… making decisions for the sect, devoting my life only to cultivation, that was never what I wanted. When I told you last year that I have a good life, I meant it.” He plays absently with Lan Jingyi’s fingers as he talks. “For a long time, I thought my duty as an heir to Jiang meant subsuming everything I was to the sect, but A Jie—and Wei Wuxian, and, y'know, therapy, for that matter—helped me realize that finding ways to help people that actually brought me joy and cultivating my own path were important, too. Attempting the impossible doesn’t mean forcing yourself into a role that doesn’t fit you.” He smiles slightly, then heaves a sigh as he rolls onto his back again. “I do miss night hunting, though. It’s been ages since I had the time for one and there’s nothing quite like it.”
Lan Jingyi smiles down at him. “What are you doing a week from Monday, then? I'm going to Qinghe to test out some of my new equipment—you should come with. You have a wedding up that way the weekend before, right?”
Jiang Cheng considers it. “You know what? I think I will.”
Lan Jingyi stands in the Unclean Realm's courtyard, the lone Lan in a crowd of Nies, and tries to project the calm bearing his sect is famous for as he waits for Jiang Cheng to show up. He got special approval to join the Nie sect on their night hunt as part of his research, the paperwork for which was handled by Professor Qiu. When Lan Jingyi asked Jiang Cheng if he needed help getting clearance to join another sect's night hunt, Jiang Cheng had smirked at him and said, "Don't worry about it." Lan Jingyi had been abruptly reminded that while he might be a family disciple, Jiang Cheng is a direct family member, with all the connections and privileges that that entails; that Nie Huaisang is, famously, his sister's soulmate; and that his friend Wen Qing (Jiang Cheng has never defined their relationship beyond that) is the wife of Sect Leader Nie. Yeah, he’s probably clear to night hunt in Qinghe whenever he wants.
None of this is why he's nervous. In the time since starting work on his degree, Lan Jingyi has accompanied a lot of sects, large and small, on a lot of night hunts—testing out remote-activated spirit lures alongside more traditional nets. This is the first time he's going to be debuting a location-enabled, motion capture array in front of someone whose opinion he cares about personally, though. He’s talked a lot about his work with Jiang Cheng, who’s always listened and humored him, but Jiang Cheng has never really seen him in action.
This night hunt is being led by a senior Nie disciple named Nie Zonghui, who stands at the center of the controlled chaos that is two dozen cultivators readying their sabers, distributing talismans, and packing last minute supplies should the night hunt go longer than expected. Nie Zonghui calls Lan Jingyi over to introduce him to the two Nie disciples who will assist him with the array positioning, and he's getting acquainted with them, so he misses Jiang Cheng's entrance.
"I've worked with Lans before," Nie Xiuying is saying. "Accommodating your sword style in our maneuvers won't be too hard."
"What about accommodating the motion-sensor lure flags?" says Jiang Cheng from right over his shoulder in a tone of polite curiosity, the shithead.
Lan Jingyi doesn't yelp in surprise, but it's a close one. You'd think he'd have been more aware of someone coming up behind him, especially since that someone is his soulmate who he's cultivated with, because yeah, now that he knows to look for it, he can feel Jiang Cheng's energy thrumming at his side, like the spark and crackle of lightning condensed in his body. Jiang Cheng gives him a brief nod, which he returns. They’re good to go.
"Sandu Shengshou," Ma Youjia says, dropping into a formal salute. Nie Xiuying follows suit. Jiang Cheng nods back, and the Nie disciples return to their preparations.
"Sandu Shengshou," Lan Jingyi echoes, bowing to his soulmate with a smirk. "This lowly one is honored by the presence of such an esteemed cultivator."
"You're such a shit," Jiang Cheng says, laughing. "I'm looking forward to seeing your inventions up close today."
"Not too close," Lan Jingyi warns. "If you trip the motion sensors, it's like painting a target on yourself for anything else out there."
"I'll keep my distance, then," he replies. "Besides, I wouldn't want to mess up your demonstration. I can feel how excited you are, you know." Jiang Cheng winks at him then, the absolute asshole.
"Okay, so I'm not imagining that—it's stronger, right?" Lan Jingyi asks. "We've never been on a night hunt together, but I feel aware of you like I would someone I've trained with for years."
Jiang Cheng just shrugs. "There's a reason cultivation partners fight so well together."
Lan Jingyi does his best not to let his reaction to that show. Obviously they'd cultivated together, but Lan Jingyi hadn't really examined the fact that they could be considered cultivation partners. He surely hadn't realized that Jiang Cheng might consider them cultivation partners. The idea is like a warming talisman in the cool Qinghe evening.
He smiles at his cultivation partner. "This should be fun, then."
It’s growing dark as the cultivators head out into the woods. Lan Jingyi is fascinated by the warm feeling of Jiang Cheng beside him, their connection stronger than ever. His energy is powerful, fizzing like sparklers, and only a little tense. Lan Jingyi sets the array, gives the Nie cultivators the go-ahead, and swings himself up into a tree to wait it out. Jiang Cheng is about fifty paces away, tucked up in another tree. Lan Jingyi can see the sheen of his robes in the low light, and then, they’re motionless. Jiang Cheng disappears into the darkness.
While they wait, Lan Jingyi mulls over what he knows of the beast they're hunting today. Four people have died so far; Lan Jingyi has seen pictures of the death wounds—both regular light-spectrum photographs and spiritual energy maps. The victims were either gored or clawed, resentful energy permeating the wounds deep into their vital organs. Another team of Nie cultivators has already cleansed the bodies, and he's seen their report as well. It's a perfect candidate for testing his motion-capture array—whatever creature is responsible for those deaths, it's better if nobody has to get within melee range of it.
The waiting has always been Lan Jingyi's least favorite part of a night hunt. Traps set, preparations made, nothing to do but sit quietly with all his senses going absolutely haywire looking for something, anything, to respond to. He's too practiced at this to fidget, much, but he wants to. He tunes in again with his spiritual senses, noting the little sparks of the other cultivators, and the stronger crackle of Jiang Cheng. Still no hint of that oily, smoky feeling that comes from resentful energy.
After several decades or several minutes of waiting—Lan Jingyi has long since learned not to rely on his own perception of the passage of time—his tablet lights up with the signal that means remote net activation has been triggered. Showtime.
“Let’s go,” Lan Jingyi whispers excitedly. They abandon their perches and move silently towards the trap from either side. The night is quiet. Lan Jingyi would've expected more noise from a creature so violent, and he frowns as they approach and he sees the size of the dark shape caught in the deity binding cords of his trap.
"This isn't right," Lan Jingyi mutters, checking the readouts on his tablet. This isn't nearly enough resentful energy to have caused this much trouble. Maybe the trap itself is dampening the readings? He drifts closer to the bound figure, trying to work out what's gone wrong, when he hears a shout of "Jingyi, watch out!"
He turns just in time to see a horrible thicket of antlers sprouting out of Jiang Cheng's side. Jiang Cheng's sword is embedded in the guai's shoulder but Lan Jingyi watches his grasp on the hilt fail as the beast attached to those antlers—a giant fucking deer, muscles swollen and warped by resentful energy, every antler tip a spear point—shakes its great head, tearing through Jiang Cheng's robes and flesh with every movement. "Jiang Cheng!" Lan Jingyi screams. He had nearly been sick just looking at photos of the wounds those antlers had left behind; seeing them forming in real time is so much worse, especially because it's Jiang Cheng impaled upon those thorns.
The sound Jiang Cheng makes freezes Lan Jingyi's blood, and he doesn't even think, just drops his tablet, draws his sword, and lunges at the creature. The guai's movements are hampered by Jiang Cheng's weight, and Lan Jingyi is able to twist and slide around to get a clear shot at the monstrous stag's neck. He slashes across its throat and follows up with a thrust to the creature's heart that carries as much spiritual energy as he can muster. Lan Jingyi thanks his lucky stars and years of training for the muscle memory, because his head is just screaming no no no no no! even as the monster staggers and collapses. Jiang Cheng is jolted on the rack of antlers as the deer falls, and there's a horrifying squelching noise as those wicked spikes withdraw and disappear when the corpse shrinks back into itself. There’s blood absolutely everywhere.
Lan Jingyi crashes to his knees beside his soulmate and begins to pour spiritual energy into him, but it’s just not enough. The pale blue light from his hands only illuminates the dark glistening stain across Jiang Cheng's stomach. Jiang Cheng coughs, wetly, and Lan Jingyi knows he has no chance of fixing this here.
He shouts to the Nie cultivators to deal with the remains of the beast as he whips off his own outer robe and wraps it as tight as he can around Jiang Cheng's midsection. "Hold on, Jiang Cheng," he babbles, saying nonsense, anything to keep him awake and breathing. "Just hold on, I'm gonna get you help. You are not gonna die on me here, dammit!" He throws his sword out and snatches up Sandu—it's warm and welcoming in his hand, and it makes no sense to make a promise to a sword, but he swears, he's gonna need you again, as he sheathes it. He levers Jiang Cheng carefully to his feet.
"'S'n honor… ride… sword," Jiang Cheng slurs against Lan Jingyi's neck. He can barely stand, and Lan Jingyi can't afford to have him fall off mid-flight, so he sweeps Jiang Cheng up and cradles him close to his chest as he mounts his sword to race through the night sky towards the Qinghe hospital carrying his soulmate in his arms.
The first thing Jiang Cheng is aware of is that he hurts a lot less than he expects to. He must've spent some time unconscious, then. At least overnight, judging by how not-impaled he feels as he takes stock of his body, and someone has done him the favor of stitching him up while he was out. The second thing he's aware of, as he turns his senses outward, is that there's someone in the room with him—not just someone. Lan Jingyi. Jiang Cheng can feel his unique energy, humming away all bright and lyrical beside him.
Sure enough, when he opens his eyes, he's in a hospital recovery room, and Lan Jingyi is scrunched up on the uncomfortable little recliner mechanically eating something out of a styrofoam bowl. His eyes are red, like he’s been crying, and his clothes are the ones he was wearing… last night(?) at the night hunt, extra wrinkled now, and stained with dirt and what looks like dried blood. Probably mine, Jiang Cheng realizes. Lan Jingyi had been the first one to reach him, and the last thing Jiang Cheng remembers was receiving a flood of his unmistakeable spiritual energy. He frowns at Lan Jingyi's rumpled state. Someone should've made him shower and change, at least.
"Have you been here the whole time?" Jiang Cheng asks. It comes out raspy through his dry throat.
Lan Jingyi's next bite of chicken drops off his chopsticks and plops back into his bowl. He jerks his head up to meet Jiang Cheng's eyes. A relieved smile spreads across his face.
"You're awake! You're okay!” Lan Jingyi exclaims, and then he wrinkles his brow. “Of course I’m here; where else would I be?" He sets down his food and unfolds himself from the chair. He pours a cup of water from the little pitcher on the table and carefully brings the straw to Jiang Cheng's lips. Jiang Cheng sips gratefully, washing the stale taste of copper from his mouth and trying to figure out how to respond to Lan Jingyi's casual declaration that this is right where he ought to be.
"I'm okay,” Jiang Cheng says at last. “It wasn't that bad.” He’s still getting used to swallowing, and he grimaces. “You could've gone and slept somewhere more comfortable."
"Wasn't that—" Lan Jingyi rubs his free hand across his face and into his own hair, leaving it even more disheveled. “They had to sew your insides back in!” he almost yells, slamming the little cup down. “Fuck, Jiang Cheng, I thought you were gonna die when I first saw how much blood you’d lost, and then what would I do? Just live the rest of my life without my soulmate in it? How can you be so reckless with your own safety? Why would you jump in front of me like that?”
He’s choked up, Jiang Cheng realizes, tears in his eyes again at the thought of losing him, and suddenly finding the right words doesn't matter. Jiang Cheng might be groggy from pain and in the worst possible state to try to talk about feelings, but this question is easy. "Because it's you," he says. “Because I can't just stand there and watch someone I love get hurt."
Lan Jingyi, his soulmate and cultivation partner, consummate loudmouth and brilliant, clever man, stares at him dumbfounded.
"Look,” Jiang Cheng continues, because even though his brain is muzzy and he’s still in a lot of pain, he's started this and now he's going to see it through. “I gave you the worst soulmark ever, and you talked me into taking a chance on us anyway.” He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, because he needs to say this, but looking Lan Jingyi in the eye is too overwhelming. “I couldn't just— How could I just let you get hurt? I know it's not romantic, and I'm the worst soulmate ever, and I ruined everything before we even met, but I do fucking love you, okay?"
When he opens his eyes, Lan Jingyi looks stunned, and then, slowly, a brilliant smile spreads across his beautiful face. “You really love me?” he asks, incredulous.
Jiang Cheng reaches for Jingyi’s hand. “Of course I love you,” he says. “It's not— Look, I know I've said … things.”
“Things like ‘no romance,’” Jingyi mutters, but he's smiling.
“I trashed the idea of soulmates totally, and I'm never going to get the whole romance thing the way some people— I still really—” He’s struggling, but he has to get it out. “I think soulmarks are just a suggestion that fate, or whatever, makes, at best. But I care about you, Lan Jingyi. I want you in my life. Whatever a soulmark means in the grand scheme of things... in our case, it was a pretty good suggestion."
“Yeah,” Jingyi says, soft and warm and not even the tiniest bit smug. “Yeah, it really was.” He threads their fingers together, just gazing at Jiang Cheng for a moment, and then he laughs. It’s that bright, ringing laugh that Jiang Cheng hasn’t gotten tired of yet and doesn’t ever expect to. “I don’t know, gege,” he says, teasing, “a dramatic love confession after risking life and limb for me is pretty fucking romantic. The sort of thing that happens at the end of a fairytale. Real top-notch happily-ever-after soulmate shit right there.”
“Oh, fuck you,” laughs Jiang Cheng, because really, what else is there to say?
“There’s the asshole I know and love,” Lan Jingyi says, letting the word roll off his tongue like he’s been waiting for Jiang Cheng to want to hear it. It doesn't scare him the way it once did. Lan Jingyi says "love" like it’s easy, like it’s obvious, and Jiang Cheng wonders when he knew, how long he’s been keeping that one behind his teeth.
“Happily ever after's still bullshit,” Jiang Cheng says, instead of asking. Lan Jingyi's teasing him, he knows he's teasing him, but it's not like the whole concept of souls and destiny and romantic love suddenly makes sense just because Jiang Cheng knows he wants a future with his smart, funny, gorgeous, loudmouthed soulmate.
“Of course it is,” Lan Jingyi agrees. “It’s just like everything else about us—we decide what the bullshit’s gonna mean.” He reaches out his other hand tentatively toward Jiang Cheng’s face. Jiang Cheng grabs it, and cups it around his chin, closing his eyes against Lan Jingyi’s warm, familiar touch.
“Kiss me, asshole,” Jiang Cheng says, in a voice that comes out far softer than intended. He feels the gentlest brush of Lan Jingyi’s lips on his, and—
“Oh good, you’ve got that sorted,” interrupts a familiar voice. “Very clever of you two to already be fucking while you figured out the whole feelings thing; we wouldn’t want to have another Jiang-Lan yearn-fest on our hands.” Nie Huaisang is standing in the doorway looking utterly amused.
“You could at least pretend you weren’t eavesdropping, Huaisang,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, only a little annoyed. He’s known Nie Huaisang for too long—he really, really couldn’t.
“You know me better than that, Jiang Cheng,” he laughs. Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes at him. “Anyway, I thought you might like a heads up that your brother and Lan Wangji are going to be bursting in any minute. Also, your sister expects a video call to personally verify you’re still in one piece.”
“Senior Wei is coming here?” Lan Jingyi asks. “Oh my god, he’s gonna kill me for letting you get hurt because of my invention. What am I supposed to tell him?”
Jiang Cheng just grins at him. “He’s not the sibling you’ve gotta watch out for. Don’t worry,” he continues, as Lan Jingyi’s face goes pale at the realization he’s going to be expected to give an accounting to Sect Leader Jiang Yanli, too, “I’m sure you’ll come up with something to say.”
Lan Jingyi gives Jiang Cheng’s hand a squeeze, and shrugs. “For you, soulmate? Yeah, I’m sure I will.”