Work Text:
Jiang Cheng is yet again wasting his evening by watching cat videos on youtube when suddenly everything around him turns dark.
He looks around, but the shine of his laptop screen is the only source of light in the whole apartment. He checks the status of his laptop and yes, running on battery, not charging.
So much for a nice, quiet evening.
He is just about to yell for Wei Wuxian, because surely he must have something to do with this, when the person in question comes out of his room.
“It’s not me, I swear to god,” Wei Wuxian says without looking up from his phone, which casts an eerie shadow on his face. “Nie Huaisang says the power is out at his place, too, and my powers really don’t reach that far.”
Jiang Cheng doubts that, so he glares at Wei Wuxian, which probably gets lost in the darkness.
“Shijie says several parts of the town are affected, and to just wait until the power comes back on,” Wei Wuxian goes on and Jiang Cheng groans.
“Great.”
“What, is this ruining your highly entertaining evening?” Wei Wuxian wants to know with a pointed look on the laptop still displaying a cat in a rather funny situation and Jiang Cheng throws a pillow at him.
Sadly, Wei Wuxian knows him well enough to dodge it, even in the dark.
“Speaking about highly entertaining, didn’t you want to leave?” Jiang Cheng wants to know, because honestly, he has been looking forward to an evening alone.
“Nah, Lan Zhan is coming here, today,” Wei Wuxian gives back, still without looking up from his phone and Jiang Cheng wonders what will happen if his battery runs out before the power comes back on.
“What do you mean, he’s coming here?” Jiang Cheng demands to know, because this has not been the plan.
He planned for a quiet evening, not for a love-sick couple that’s big on PDA.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” Wei Wuxian asks innocently and finally looks up from his phone.
Jiang Cheng really hopes it’s his phone’s light that puts the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, but knowing his luck, it’s not.
“Lan Zhan and Xichen-ge will be coming over today.”
And there it is. Jiang Cheng really hates Wei Wuxian.
“And when did you plan to tell me this?”
“About two minutes before they arrive? So you can’t escape?”
Jiang Cheng takes two minutes to just breathe, instead of killing his brother, and then says, forced nonchalantly: “And why would I leave? This is my home, too.”
“But your massive crush on Xichen-ge and your inability to handle your emotions make you flee every time he enters a room, so today we planned against you.”
“I fucking hate you,” Jiang Cheng says to that and then gets up, laptop forgotten on the couch.
Wei Wuxian might not be completely off the mark about his crush though, and Jiang Cheng looks down at himself in desperation.
It’s already well into the evening, and he’s still in his pajama pants.
“I’m going to shower,” Jiang Cheng says, forcing the words out and his fingers twitch with the urge to strangle Wei Wuxian when he laughs at him.
“Xichen-ge likes you no matter what you look like, so don’t try too hard,” Wei Wuxian absentmindedly tells him and Jiang Cheng flushes bright red.
Thankfully Wei Wuxian can’t see it in the darkness, or Jiang Cheng would never hear the end of it.
Wei Wuxian has made comments like that before, but Jiang Cheng never quite believes him. Lan Xichen is a successful business man and while Jiang Cheng is studying to be the same, he’s still just a student. There is just no way in hell that Lan Xichen even noticed his existence besides ‘my brothers boyfriend younger brother’ and Jiang Cheng hates Wei Wuxian a little more, every time he stirs up some hope in Jiang Cheng.
He tries hard not to think about Lan Xichen being in their apartment, and he resists the urge to rush through his shower so that he still has time to clean the place up, because honestly, it’s not that dirty anyway.
His nervousness makes him unreasonable and Jiang Cheng knows it.
When he steps out of the bathroom, clean and refreshed, he stops dead in his tracks.
Wei Wuxian is running around their living-room like a mad man, putting up candles everywhere.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Cheng bites out and Wei Wuxian doesn’t even spare him a glance, he’s too busy running wild with the candles.
And the open flame, Jiang Cheng notices with horror, because he can already see their apartment burning down.
Somehow Wei Wuxian manages to only light the candles, and when he’s done he turns around to Jiang Cheng with a shit eating grin on his face.
“Setting the mood, what else?”
Jiang Cheng can feel a headache coming on, and he desperately wishes to be in his own room, with his laptop, and his cat videos.
“Why the fuck are you doing it out here? If you and Lan Wangji get up to anything on the couch I will kill you.”
“I know that,” Wei Wuxian says with an eye roll, and it doesn’t clear anything up for Jiang Cheng.
“Then why aren’t you putting up candles in your own room? You know. Where you will actually be making out with Lan Wangji.”
“But where will you make out with Xichen-ge?” Wei Wuxian innocently asks and shrieks when Jiang Cheng jumps over the couch to put him into a headlock.
Not that he succeeds. Wei Wuxian knows him too well for that.
“I will kill you,” Jiang Cheng threatens and then freezes when the doorbell rings.
“Put away your frown,” Wei Wuxian hisses as he dances over to the door, “or Xichen-ge will leave immediately.”
“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng mutters, but he does try to school his face into something more amenable.
Lan Wangji is the first to enter the apartment, and Jiang Cheng immediately averts his eyes, because he does not need to see his brother making out with someone. But his eyes fall onto Lan Xichen, who neatly side steps Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng is entirely unprepared for the way Lan Xichen looks in the golden light the candles cast over the whole room.
He will never admit it, especially not to Wei Wuxian, but his breath catches and his heart might miss a beat.
“Jiang Cheng,” Lan Xichen greets him, softly, always so softly, and Jiang Cheng falls back on his familiar and safe, frown.
“Lan Xichen,” he gives back, and he knows he sounds rougher than he means to, but he can’t help it. It’s who he is.
They stand next to each other, awkwardly trying to ignore Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, who are still snogging like the goddamn teenagers they clearly are, and Jiang Cheng desperately searches for something to say.
He groans when he catches a flash of tongue, and that’s it. He doesn’t need to see this.
“Do you think they will ever actually leave for his room?” Jiang Cheng asks Lan Xichen who sighs next to him.
“They usually never do,” he says and Jiang Cheng can hear the underlying despair in his voice.
“We could go to my room?” Jiang Cheng hesitantly asks, because dear gods, he doesn’t know if he can deal with Lan Xichen in his personal space.
“Do you have candles, too?” Lan Xichen asks him with a small smile and Jiang Cheng hopes the golden light covers his blush.
“Wei Wuxian stole all of them,” he informs Lan Xichen.
“I stole them for you!” Wei Wuxian yells over to them, apparently deeming this important enough to separate himself from Lan Wangji for a second.
Not that it lasts much longer than that.
Lan Xichen smiles brightly at Jiang Cheng at that and Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what to do with that.
“Or we could leave?” he weakly asks but Lan Xichen shakes his head.
“We can steal some of these candles for your room,” he tells him and starts to gather a few up in his hands.
Jiang Cheng can do nothing but stare at him for long, long moments, and the thing that finally jolts Jiang Cheng out of his stupor is Wei Wuxian’s big, triumphant grin and the high-five he gives Lan Wangji.
“I hate you,” Jiang Cheng mouths at him, but Wei Wuxian only blows him a kiss and then drags Lan Wangji over to the couch.
“Do not do anything nasty on our couch!” Jiang Cheng hisses at him as he follows Lan Xichen into his own room, hands full of candles at well.
“Do not do anything nasty in your room,” Wei Wuxian calls after him and Jiang Cheng wishes he had a free hand to show him the finger.
He closes the door with his foot and then busies himself with putting the candles down one by one, desperately trying to ignore Lan Xichen.
“I’m sorry about that,” Jiang Cheng eventually mutters, when there are no more candles to be placed and he doesn’t have a good reason anymore to keep ignoring Lan Xichen.
“I’m not,” Lan Xichen says with a small shrug and Jiang Cheng whirls around to him. “I mean the advice is stupid, we can do anything we want, but I appreciate the effort. It seemed well-planned.”
“The effort of…” Jiang Cheng mutters and Lan Xichen smiles at him.
“Getting us alone in a room, in a situation where you’re not bound to run out on me,” he calmly states and Jiang Cheng is sure he flushes bright red at that.
“So you’ve noticed that.”
“With regret, actually,” Lan Xichen says and then slowly steps closer, determined but still leaving Jiang Cheng enough time to side-step him or leave completely.
Jiang Cheng does neither.
Lan Xichen steps close, but he doesn’t cross the last bit of distance, so it’s Jiang Cheng who finally takes the last step, that brings him right into Lan Xichen’s space. He leans up to press their lips together, nervousness making his hands shake, but he’s immediately gratified when Lan Xichen’s hands find his hips and bring him even closer.
It’s a long moment before they part again.
“Wei Wuxian can never know about this,” Jiang Cheng mutters and Lan Xichen presses his laugh into Jiang Cheng’s cheek.
“I’m not inclined to keep this a secret,” Lan Xichen whispers into his skin and Jiang Cheng shivers.
He refuses to acknowledge the happiness that spreads through him at those words.
“If it’s any consolation, Wangji will be unbearably smug about this as well.”
Jiang Cheng takes a second to think that over, and then leans up to kiss Lan Xichen again.
“I think I can live with that,” he agrees and it’s the last time for a long while either of them speaks.
They barely notice when the power comes back on.