Work Text:
When Jiang Cheng wakes up with a pounding headache, he knows that it’s a bad sign.
His memory is fuzzy, and the throbbing pain is not helping at all, and Jiang Cheng groans.
He really shouldn’t have let Wei Wuxian drag him along when he and Nie Huaisang went out drinking. Or he should have at least refused the four last drinks. At least, Jiang Cheng is pretty sure that one of those is responsible for his current predicament.
“Fuck,” he groans and buries his face in the pillow, completely content to not get up at all today.
The headache is almost bearable with his eyes closed and Jiang Cheng melts into the mattress, perfectly happy right where he is.
He gets a few blissful minutes of calm and quiet before his door flies open, startling him out of his doze and bringing the headache back with a vengeance.
“A-Cheng!” Wei Wuxian yells and simply flops right down on Jiang Cheng when it becomes clear that he’s not inclined to move.
“Go away,” Jiang Cheng groans out, feeling completely miserable with his head pounding like this again, but Wei Wuxian only laughs.
Jiang Cheng really fucking hates that the bastard doesn’t get a hangover, no matter what or how much he drinks. Life is really unfair, Jiang Cheng thinks and puts the pillow over his head, hoping to discourage Wei Wuxian from talking to him, but of course it doesn’t work.
In all his years Jiang Cheng hasn’t even found a single thing that discourages Wei Wuxian.
“Come on, get up, get up,” Wei Wuxian sing-songs and pokes Jiang Cheng’s body under the blanket, clearly trying to find one of the many ticklish spots Jiang Cheng has.
“Fuck you,” Jiang Cheng says, and he even pulls the pillow away from his head for that, just so he can be sure that Wei Wuxian heard him.
“Lan Zhan is already doing that,” Wei Wuxian says and laughs again when Jiang Cheng lets out an outraged yell.
He really doesn’t need to know about his brother’s sex life.
“What the hell do you want?” Jiang Cheng whines when Wei Wuxian doesn’t seem inclined to leave him alone and Wei Wuxian goes boneless on Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng would complain, but the weight on him is actually really nice and so Jiang Cheng only sinks deeper into the mattress as well.
“Listen, how much of last night do you remember?” Wei Wuxian asks him and Jiang Cheng sighs.
“Probably not enough,” he finally admits, because Wei Wuxian also has the tendency to always remember perfectly what happened and Wei Wuxian only hums thoughtfully. “Why?” Jiang Cheng carefully asks because if Wei Wuxian let him do something stupid, he’s going to kill him.
“I was just wondering if you know what’s up with Mingjue-ge,” Wei Wuxian says and Jiang Cheng freezes.
Fuck.
“Nie Mingjue?” he carefully asks and Wei Wuxian moves around on Jiang Cheng until he completely turned over once.
“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian says and doesn’t seem inclined to explain at all.
“He was there?” Jiang Cheng wants to know because he doesn’t remember that at all and it could be a huge problem.
If Jiang Cheng did something stupid while Nie Mingjue was watching he will die of embarrassment.
“He dropped by eventually to pick up Huaisang,” Wei Wuxian tells him and Jiang Cheng curses under his breath because of course.
He should have known.
“And what’s so strange about that?” he asks, desperately trying to sound casual but failing by a lot, Jiang Cheng simply knows it.
“That’s not the strange part,” Wei Wuxian says and Jiang Cheng fights the acute urge to strangle him.
He is in no mood to fish for every little piece of information and if Wei Wuxian doesn’t start talking about the real issue real soon then Jiang Cheng is going to lose it, hangover or not.
“Would you please just finally tell me what’s going on,” Jiang Cheng bites out but when Wei Wuxian stays silent for a moment longer, worry settles in his gut.
This doesn’t seem good at all.
“You were talking to him,” Wei Wuxian finally starts and Jiang Cheng immediately goes cold.
He promised himself to never talk to Nie Mingjue when he’s inebriated, but it seems like his drunk self thought that was a very unimportant rule.
“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng whispers, thankfully too low for Wei Wuxian to hear it seems, because he goes right on.
“You were really quite red in the face but it looked like you ran off before Nie Mingjue could even say anything at all and since then he’s contacted me a few times, wanting to know if you’re alright, or if your phone is broken,” Wei Wuxian tells him and Jiang Cheng abandones the safety under his pillow and blanket to scramble for his phone.
He thinks it’s a plus that his sudden movement dislodges Wei Wuxian who falls off the bed.
“Hey,” Wei Wuxian yells from the floor, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t pay him any attention, too focused on finding his phone.
When he finally does, he hesitates before he checks his messages.
He really has quite a few from Nie Mingjue, but Jiang Cheng is too scared to open them. If he talked to Nie Mingjue and then ran off, there’s only one possible explanation for that.
He confessed his feelings and didn’t give Nie Mingjue a chance to reject him.
“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng says again, this time with more vehemence and it’s enough to cut off Wei Wuxian’s whining in the background.
“Is everything alright?” he wants to know. “Do you know what’s wrong with Mingjue-ge?” he asks and Jiang Cheng buries his face in his hands.
“I might have done something stupid,” he admits and Wei Wuxian crawls over to drape himself over Jiang Cheng’s back again.
“It can’t be that bad. You know Mingjue-ge. He will not hold it against you.”
Yeah, that is exactly what Jiang Cheng is afraid of.
“What did you do?” Wei Wuxian asks him when Jiang Cheng stays quiet for too long and Jiang Cheng winces.
“I think I confessed to him,” he then whispers and he can feel how Wei Wuxian freezes against him.
“You’re in love with Mingjue-ge?” Wei Wuxian then asks and Jiang Cheng hangs his head.
“Yeah,” he mutters, and Wei Wuxian lets out a long sigh.
“Oh, A-Cheng, what did he say?” he asks, clearly already expecting the worst with how Jiang Cheng is behaving but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“No fucking clue. I probably ran away before he could say anything to my confession and that’s the reason he wants to contact me. To let me down gently.”
“Or to accept your feelings,” Wei Wuxian says and Jiang Cheng has to laugh at that.
Right. As if that is ever going to happen.
“Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian starts but Jiang Cheng doesn’t want to hear it.
“Stop it,” he whispers. “Just stop it. We both know he’d never look at me twice.”
“But he does,” Wei Wuxian tells him, slinging his arms around him so that Jiang Cheng can’t shake him off. “I have seen him look. And besides, he’s your friend, right? Even if he doesn’t reciprocate your feelings, he does at least like you. Isn’t that something?”
“Would it be something to you if you know Lan Wangji would only ever see you as a friend?” Jiang Cheng shoots back and when Wei Wuxian goes quiet, he knows that he hit a point.
“You know what?” Wei Wuxian says after a while. “Yes, it would. Because it would mean I still have Lan Zhan in my life, and I still get to share so many important things with him. It would be fine.”
Jiang Cheng wants to call him out on his bullshit, but Wei Wuxian sounds completely sincere and Jiang Cheng finds that he actually might have a point. He can’t imagine not having Nie Mingjue in his life so Wei Wuxian is probably right.
Still, Jiang Cheng can’t look at his phone, because while he might be okay simply being friends with Nie Mingjue, he’s not ready for a rejection.
“Come on, Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian cajoles him, but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“I’m not looking at his response,” he decides and then he turns his head to glare at Wei Wuxian from the corners of his eyes. “I have a hangover to cure, no thanks to you,” he bites out and his headache comes back with a vengeance when Wei Wuxian laughs right in his ear.
Jiang Cheng will kill him.
~*~*
“Please, just come over,” Nie Huaisang whines through the phone and Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose.
It’s been exactly one day since Jiang Cheng woke up to the embarrassing news that he confessed to Nie Mingjue and he is so not ready to see Nie Huaisang.
“I will not come over,” Jiang Cheng says for what feels like the thousands time and Nie Huaisang’s whining only intensifies.
“Da-ge is not even here,” he finally just says and Jiang Cheng freezes.
“Did he talk to you?” he haltingly asks, honestly too scared to hear the answer but Nie Huaisang only snorts.
“When does he ever talk to me about anything important?” he gives back and then sighs. “He just said that he needs to talk to you, but he left with Er-ge and San-ge on that retreat thing they have going on,” Nie Huaisang explains and Jiang Cheng was absolutely fine not knowing that.
Nie Mingjue leaves with his two best friends to that retreat every few months, and Jiang Cheng suspects that it’s just not a friendly get-away. He long since suspected that there’s something more going on between those three but he likes to not think about that, since his heart always hurts when he gives too much thought to what might happen between them there.
“Good for him,” Jiang Cheng says and he can’t quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.
He knows it’s unfair, since there is absolutely no reason for him to be jealous or this bitter, since he and Nie Mingjue are nothing but friends, but it’s hard to remember that in times like this.
“A-Cheng,” Nie Huaisang starts and Jiang Cheng doesn’t want to hear another word about this.
“If I come over, will you not talk to me about your brother?” Jiang Cheng wants to know and he knows that the notifications on his phone are still steadily growing in number because he still couldn’t bring himself to check his conversation with Nie Mingjue.
“Fine,” Nie Huaisang sighs out though he sounds too happy about it anyway. “See you in an hour,” he says and then promptly hangs up on Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose, taking deep breaths to calm himself down, and then he starts to gather his things.
Nie Huaisang will expect him to bring some snacks, so Jiang Cheng better gets going if he wants to be done on time.
When he arrives at the Nie house—absolutely weighed down by snacks—it takes Nie Huaisang an awfully long time to even open the door.
“Sorry, I’m not ready, I’ll be there in a bit, you know the way,” he pants out, clearly stressed as hell—though what about remains a mystery to Jiang Cheng—and he dashes off without waiting for Jiang Cheng’s reply.
Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes—not that Nie Huaisang sees it—and then makes his way over to the living-room, where he simply drops all the snacks in his arms on the couch.
He sees a silhouette from the corner of his eyes and he’s just about to make a funny quip at Nie Huaisang when he turns and realizes that it’s in fact not Nie Huaisang.
It’s Nie Mingjue, and before Jiang Cheng can simply bolt Nie Mingjue corners him, and quite literally at that. He simply walks up to Jiang Cheng, making him retreat, until he’s backed into a corner with nowhere to run because Nie Mingjue is a very imposing man.
“You’re supposed to be on your retreat,” Jiang Cheng squeaks out and Nie Mingjue raises one eyebrow.
“And you’re supposed to answer my messages,” he easily gives back and Jiang Cheng flushes.
“I didn’t even read them,” he whispers, because he can never bring himself to lie to Nie Mingjue and he nods as if he expected that.
“I know,” he answers. “It’s why I’m here.”
Jiang Cheng winces because he didn’t mean to ruin Nie Mingjue’s time with his friends but Nie Mingjue shakes his head just as Jiang Cheng is about to apologize to him.
“Don’t apologize. And just for the record: there’s nothing going on between Xichen, Meng Yao and me,” Nie Mingjue tells him and Jiang Cheng’s eyes go wide.
He didn’t think he was that obvious about it.
“Now, will you let me actually say something to your confession or will you run away again?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng eyes the space to Nie Mingjue’s left and right.
He wouldn’t make it past him anyway, so there’s nothing he can do.
“I guess I’ll stay,” he says with a shrug, aiming for braver than he actually feels and Nie Mingjue seems highly amused.
“Good,” he says and then leans down to kiss Jiang Cheng, effectively freezing him in place.
“What?” Jiang Cheng gets out when Nie Mingjue moves back again and he’s full on smiling now.
“That would have been my answer to your confession if only you’d given me the time to say or do something about it,” Nie Mingjue tells him, so very clearly amused and Jiang Cheng presses his lips together.
“I don’t actually remember that night,” Jiang Cheng starts but Nie Mingjue shakes his head.
“But you pieced enough together to avoid me,” he muses and Jiang Cheng sighs.
“Yes,” he admits.
“You did confess to me, and then you also simply ran away before I could say anything,” Nie Mingjue says again, just driving that point home and Jiang Cheng shrugs, trying to hide his embarrassment but he is uncomfortably aware of how fast his heart is beating in his chest.
“I was afraid of rejection.”
“Did that seem like a rejection to you?” Nie Mingjue asks him and reaches out to take Jiang Cheng’s hand in his. “Because it’s not. It’s a reciprocation. I love you, too,” he easily says and Jiang Cheng feels like he goes even redder in the face.
“Oh,” he breathes out, because this is really not what he expected at all.
“A good oh or a bad oh?” Nie Mingjue dares to ask, as if Jiang Cheng’s reaction to this could be bad at all.
“What do you think?” he snaps out and Nie Mingjue lets out a relieved chuckle.
“Now that’s more like you,” he says and tugs on Jiang Cheng’s hand to bring him closer for another kiss.
This time Jiang Cheng’s brain doesn’t short circuit completely so he gets to actually enjoy the kiss. He enjoys it so much that he startles badly when Nie Huaisang clears his throat next to them.
“That’s actually disgusting,” he says when they don’t part fast enough and Jiang Cheng frowns.
“Well, seeing as you lured me here under false pretences, you don’t get to complain,” he shoots back and Nie Huaisang breaks out into a smile at that.
“Okay,” he easily agrees and then drags both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng over to the couch. “This development doesn’t get you out of movie night, just so you know, but I’ll allow you to cuddle on the couch.”
“How generous of you,” Nie Mingjue drily gives back and Jiang Cheng presses his face to Nie Mingjue’s shoulder to hide his snickers.
“Come on,” Nie Mingjue says as he slings his arm around Jiang Cheng’s lower back. “Cuddling sounds like a good idea.”
“It does,” Jiang Cheng immediately agrees, because it sounds like the best idea, and he intends to take full advantage of Nie Huaisang’s permission and Nie Mingjue’s willingness.
It’s a very cosy evening for Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng and—if you want to believe Nie Huaisang’s constant complaints—the worst one of his life for him.
They don’t pay much attention to that, though, because Nie Huaisang says it with a smile and Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng are actually too busy cuddling to really pay attention.
It’s a very good evening.