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Jiang Cheng shakes out his hands and balances lightly on the balls of his feet. He ties up his hair and stretches. The cool October breeze blows across the field, chilling him through his thin t-shirt and track pants. It’s been nearly two months since he’s been out in the practice yard behind Jiang Manor as he spent the time recovering from shoulder surgery. Wen Qing, brilliant doctor and mostly-okay friend, had repaired it after a night hunt incident that involved Wei Ying (of course), a monstrous black dog (not his fault) and an unfortunate slip in a puddle of said monstrous dog’s drool.
Okay, Wen Qing is a brilliant friend, but Jiang Cheng is still annoyed that she refused to speed up his healing and made him take a break from field work with the Nie and Jiang Disciples. His own golden core helped him cut recovery time by at least six weeks, but he could have been back in the field in a week if she’d helped him along. He suspected his beloved husband also had a hand in his little vacation, but he was too distracted by discussion conference planning to seek revenge.
He will admit (only to himself) that the rest did him good. He stands at one end of the end of the archery range, loose limbed and focused. He set up a row of straw dummies at the other end of the range, and now he stands, hands outstretched, and calls Zidian to life.
He starts slowly, swinging Zidian in wide, lazy arcs, reacquainting himself with her heft and reach. She sparks around him, as happy as Jiang Cheng to be free outside, under the sun. He takes a step forward, inching toward the targets. When he’s about halfway to the dummies, he adds more complicated footwork, spinning, crouching, and leaping as he makes his way down the field. He lashes out to the right, snapping the head of the first dummy on the end (the one he might have taped a photo of Wei Ying to). It pops off with a satisfying crack and flies over his head. Zidian snakes out again, and the straw head is obliterated.
By the time the sixth and final dummy has been destroyed, Jiang Cheng is flushed, hair sticking to his face and neck, and his breathing is only a bit more labored than usual, but that’s normal given his break. Zidian hums with satisfaction and curls around his wrist. Jiang Cheng leans forward and stretches, resting his palms flat on the ground.
“Woo woo! Take your top off!”
Jiang Cheng whips around and scans the bleachers along the side of the archery range in time to see Jin Ling leap on Lan Jingyi’s back.
“Don’t — my jiujiu!” Jin Ling sputters. He has Jingyi in a headlock. The unruly Lan laughs and hooks his leg behind Jin Ling’s, and the teens scuffle in the grass while Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen laugh. He thinks they might be taking bets, but a piercing whistle cuts across the field, and the boys stand at attention. Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang stroll onto the field, and the boys put on matching expressions of earnest obedience (except for Jin Ling, who’s still scowling and muttering curses).
Wangji heads over to the boys as Huaisang makes his way to Jiang Cheng’s side. Jiang Cheng tilts his head to meet Huaisang’s chaste kiss. “I thought we had a free afternoon,” he says, sliding an arm around Huaisang’s waist, letting his hand wander down to squeeze Huaisang’s ass. Huaisang smacks Jiang Cheng’s chest.
“Not in front of the children,” he says.
“Mmm, fine.” Jiang Cheng nods his head at Wangji and the boys. Jin Ling is now listening eagerly, and Jingyi looks like he might swoon as he basks in the attention of his beloved Hanguang-Jun. “What’s the deal?”
“Reports of a fierce corpse harassing a small village about an hour north of here. Wangji’s decided to send the boys out on a solo mission. Not,” Huaisang cuts in as Jiang Cheng begins to argue, “truly alone. Da-ge and Xichen-ge are in the next town already. They called in the report, and they’ll be close by. The boys don’t know it, but I promise, they’ll be looked after. Plus, I upgraded all the tracking charms on their phones.”
“I don’t like it,” Jiang Cheng grumbles.
“You’re never gonna like it,” Huaisang replies. He raises up on tip-toe to kiss Jiang Cheng again. “But they’re seventeen, and Jin Ling’s nearly sixteen. Yanli-jie has already given her permission. It’s time.”
Jiang Cheng sighs. “I know.” He pulls Huaisang close, and Huaisang doesn’t protest, even though Jiang Cheng is really sweaty. Huaisang does wrinkle his nose when he gets a good whiff of Jiang Cheng.
“I have plans for us,” he says, tugging on Jiang Cheng’s t-shirt. “I promise to keep you plenty distracted.”
Jiang Cheng looks down at his husband, eyebrow raised. “Plans, huh?” He kisses the tip of Huaisang’s nose. “I suppose I could let you try.” They walk, hand in hand, over to the juniors. Wangji nods to Jiang Cheng and Huaisang before turning, and Jingyi, Sizhui, and Zizhen fall into line behind him like ducklings.
Jiang Cheng stops Jin Ling before he goes with them.
“I’ll get back at him, jiujiu, I won’t let him—“
“Aye, stop a minute,” Jiang Cheng says. “I just wanted to say, be careful or I’ll—“
“Break your legs,” Huaisang and Jin Ling finish in unison.
“I know, jiujiu. Mom made me promise, too.” He looks over his shoulder before darting in and giving Jiang Cheng a quick hug. “I’ll tell you all about it in the morning.” He gets in one last hug before taking off after Wangji and his friends.
Jiang Cheng sighs as they leave the practice field.
“Come on, old man,” Huaisang says, tugging Jiang Cheng along after him. “I told you, I have plans, and the first is a nice, hot bath.”
“What about the dummies?”
“Wangji will look after Wei Ying and the kids,” Huaisang says, winking at Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng snorts. “You’re a jerk.”
“You love me.”
Jiang Cheng caresses Huaisang’s cheek, and Zidian releases a shiver of energy through them at the point of contact, and Jiang Cheng sighs. “Yeah. We do.” He kisses Huaisang. “But we also need to clean up the field before we go back in.”
“Counter point, we send a few underlings along to do it.”
“Huaisang.”
“Alright, but if I get dirty, I’m taking over your bath.”
“We could share?”
Huaisang looks thoughtful as he considers this. “I’ll allow it. But let’s hurry. I have a lot of plans for the evening.”
Zidian hums happily on Jiang Cheng’s wrist, and Jiang Cheng grins. “I might have some ideas of my own.”