Work Text:
10 years after the Siege of the Burial Mounds
After the conference, Jiang Cheng had had enough of everything and he just wanted to stop thinking. So he went to Gusu, found an Emperor's Smile liquor shop and got drunk. He knew he shouldn't have but he never blacks out when drunk and he never does anything that would cause any difficulties for his sect. He was just tired and wanted to relax, to stop thinking about... everything, really, he just wanted to be.
He forgot that he was supposed to come back to the Cloud Recesses and spend the night there. Oops. But he was having fun! He found a few people interested in his night hunt stories and while he wasn't a good storyteller, those were great stories so people were interested in hearing them anyway. Jiang Cheng did his best to do them justice. He had just finished his third story and his fourth Emperor's Smile bottle, and someone was about to give him a new one, when a new voice joined and its owner intercepted the bottle.
"I think that's enough," said Sect Leader Lan, smiling lightly. If it was anyone else Jiang Cheng might have argued but Sect Leader Lan sneaked in, put his arm around Jiang Cheng and helped him up. "Are you good to go?" Lan Xichen asked and Jiang Cheng wanted to say he's fine, but then he stumbled. Fortunately, their audience had already dispersed.
"It's late," noticed Jiang Cheng. "What is Sect Leader Lan doing up?"
"I couldn't sleep."
"What about the Lan rules?"
"I look at them more like... guidelines than rules."
Jiang Cheng squinted his eyes and tried to look at Lan Xichen closer but that only brought his whole body crashing to the other man. He wanted to say sorry but at the same time he was so close and Lan Xichen looked so nice with this cute smile on his face... Jiang Cheng kissed him. And after a few seconds, he felt Lan Xichen kissing him back.
He put his arms around Lan Xichen and sighed into his mouth when Lan Xichen cupped his face in his hand. It was sweet and slow, like they had all the time in the world...
"Sect Leader! Where are you?"
They had to separate when Jiang Cheng heard his own disciples calling for him. He looked around too rapidly and got dizzy and... he only remembered fragments from there on. That never happened before. He found his limit.
But what he did remember was… Lan Xichen holding him till his disciples arrived. Being carried to the Cloud Recesses by his disciples. Keeping a strong grip on a white sleeve.
"It's okay, Wanyin." These were the last words he heard.
20 years after the Siege of the Burial Mounds
"It's good to see you out and about, Sect Leader Lan," Jiang Cheng said even before he bowed to Lan Xichen. "I wasn't expecting to see you outside of Cloud Recesses so soon."
"Hello, Sect Leader Jiang," greeted Lan Xichen warmly. "I missed Gusu. I wanted to go for a walk."
"Of course. Mind if I join you?"
"It'll be my pleasure."
Jiang Cheng really thought it would take Lan Xichen a few more months to leave his sect after he had decided to end his seclusion a couple weeks ago. Yet here he is, like nothing has changed, like it really helped him to shut himself off from the world and grieve for a while. And Jiang Cheng would believe that if not for the way Lan Xichen’s smiles were sad now.
They stopped on a busy street and Lan Xichen looked at the door to the inn.
"Do you want to go in?" asked Jiang Cheng.
"Ah, no. I just remembered that this was the place where I found you last time."
Jiang Cheng had to think about it for a second and when he remembered, he crossed his arms.
"I was drunk, you know," he said, "that was why I kissed you." He wasn't about to act like nothing happened. Even though Lan Xichen sure acted like that when they saw each other again the next day and every day since then. So Jiang Cheng wasn't going to push. He was intrigued before the kiss — and why wouldn't he be, it was Zewu-Jun, Lan Xichen, the best cultivator of their generation in everything: combat, skill, and looks. Jiang Cheng had eyes.
He also had ten years to get a grip and not develop a crush but we can't have everything. Talk about attempting the impossible. Not having a crush on Lan Xichen was so hard. And Jiang Cheng failed. But he was older and his life had kind of come back to normal, and he was back in Gusu, and with Lan Xichen... Why not bring it up again? What did Jiang Cheng have to lose?
"But you weren't drunk," he said, watching Lan Xichen like a hawk. Lan Xichen was smiling this sad smile of his, not looking at Jiang Cheng. "Why did you kiss me back?"
Only after this question did Lan Xichen look at Jiang Cheng. His smile was smaller but... more real. Still not the same as before, but a little bit closer to it. That gave Jiang Cheng hope. "I was just being polite," answered Lan Xichen.
And Jiang Cheng's hopes went back down again. He snorted and rolled his eyes.
Something in his reaction must have made Lan Xichen... reconsider. He brought his head so close to Jiang Cheng’s that he had to take one small step back. He could clearly see how Lan Xichen boldly brought his gaze up and down Jiang Cheng's body.
"Do you want to know how truly polite I am?" asked Lan Xichen.
Was Jiang Cheng supposed to answer that in any way other than "yes"?
They came back to the Cloud Recesses and Jiang Cheng found out how polite Lan Xichen really was, even after all that had happened to him. He listened to everything Jiang Cheng said and did everything he was told to do. He opened himself up for Jiang Cheng, let himself be kissed breathless, let Jiang Cheng in. He waited for Jiang Cheng to tell him it's okay to leave marks, it's okay to grab him tighter, it's okay to hold on as hard as he needed to. It's okay to feel pleasure.
And when Lan Xichen cried, so sweetly, Jiang Cheng vowed to himself to give that man everything he ever asked for because Lan Xichen would always be polite in asking and would never demand or hide anything from him.