Work Text:
Jiang Cheng knows that something happened the moment he comes home, because Nie Mingjue is waiting for him in the hallway.
There’s a split second where Jiang Cheng fears that something bad happened—someone got hurt or something similar—but Nie Mingjue is excited-agitated and not worried-agitated, so Jiang Cheng relaxes again.
“What’s going on, my soul?” Jiang Cheng asks and smiles into the kiss Nie Mingjue pulls him into.
“Hi,” Nie Mingjue whispers when they part, and he seems a little bit more relaxed already.
So he didn’t speak with anyone about what has him so excited yet, Jiang Cheng thinks.
“Wanna tell me what has you this agitated?” Jiang Cheng asks as he toes off his shoes and Nie Mingjue huffs.
“Why do you always know?”
“Maybe because you’re like an eager puppy, waiting for me to come home, so you can share the news?” Jiang Cheng shoots back, and he grins at Nie Mingjue. “It’s very cute.”
“You’re cute,” Nie Mingjue grumbles and if he thinks it’s a good comeback, then he’s wrong.
It’s adorable and nothing more.
But still, Nie Mingjue is not talking so Jiang Cheng raises an expectant eyebrow at him.
“Xichen wrote me,” Nie Mingjue finally reveals and now the other eyebrow joins the first.
“Did he now?” Jiang Cheng asks, and he’s cautious.
Nie Mingjue might be happy about that, but he’s always a little bit blinded when it comes to Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng already had to witness one fall out between them. He’s not keen to do it a second time.
“Yes. I know you’re—well, whatever it is you are, but look,” Nie Mingjue says and almost shoves his phone in Jiang Cheng’s face.
He grumbles as he takes it out of Nie Mingjue’s hand, but it’s cute how excited he is about this and Jiang Cheng prays to all the gods that Lan Xichen is not going to fuck this up again.
The phone is unlocked already and showing Lan Xichen’s most recent message and Jiang Cheng wonders just how often Nie Mingjue already read it.
Hello, Mingjue, it says. I’m sorry how our last meeting went. I wish to talk, and I would love to see the new apartment you moved into, if you would be open for that. Just let me know.
It’s—something, alright, Jiang Cheng thinks, and he’s especially unhappy with how Lan Xichen is not even explicitly apologizing for their last fight. And no mention of the fact that he blocked Nie Mingjue for almost two months, either.
“You didn’t answer yet,” Jiang Cheng says with a frown, because he expected Nie Mingjue to enthusiastically agree the moment he reached the last word.
“You have to agree, too,” Nie Mingjue gives back and plucks the phone out of his hands. “It’s your home, too. If you don’t want him here then I won’t invite him.”
“Oh, you idiot,” Jiang Cheng sighs and leans up for a kiss. “Of course he can come. As long as he behaves.”
Jiang Cheng hates how Lan Xichen took Jin Guangyao’s side the last time he spoke with Nie Mingjue, how he always implied that Nie Mingjue understands everything Jin Guangyao says wrong, how he should try to see it from his perspective as well.
Lan Xichen never cared to see it from Nie Mingjue’s perspective and Jiang Cheng is still very angry with him for that, especially since he saw first hand how it almost broke Nie Mingjue.
But he’ll not stand between them if Lan Xichen is really trying to do better.
“Thank you,” Nie Mingjue breathes out and immediately types out a reply.
It doesn’t take long for Lan Xichen to answer and when Nie Mingjue looks at him with a huge smile on his face, he knows that he accepted whatever date Nie Mingjue proposed.
Jiang Cheng just hopes that it will go as well as Nie Mingjue clearly wants it to.
~*~*~
Jiang Cheng is a little bit stand-offish when Lan Xichen arrives for afternoon tea a few days later, he can’t deny that, but Lan Xichen behaves as if nothing at all is wrong, as if he didn’t block Nie Mingjue for two months, as if they didn’t part with a fight last time.
He’s not sure if he likes it, but he will not comment on it right now. He will get to rant to Nie Huaisang later, depending on how this goes; for now, he’s the perfect host.
Jiang Cheng keeps himself in the background, wanting to give Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen time to overcome whatever awkwardness they are dealing with right now. It doesn’t seem like Lan Xichen feels much of that on his side, but Nie Mingjue moves his hand in a nervous gesture, a tick he developed when he’s truly nervous and unsure and Jiang Cheng wants to do nothing more than to hold his hand.
Instead he pours all of them tea and then pretends to not notice the awkward silence that settles over the table.
“It’s white tea, that’s still your favourite, right?” Jiang Cheng asks as he puts the tea pot down and Lan Xichen jerks with the question.
“Yeah, sure,” he gives back, reaching for the cup and almost burning his tongue when he immediately takes a sip.
“It’s good to see you, Xichen,” Nie Mingjue whispers, closing his hand around his own cup and Lan Xichen drags up a smile.
“It’s good to see you, too, Mingjue. Your new apartment is beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Nie Mingjue gives back and Jiang Cheng wants to scream, it’s all so painfully polite.
They are best friends—or at least used to be—and it shouldn’t be like this.
They continue with the meaningless small-talk over their tea and Jiang Cheng has to force himself not to simply address the elephant in the room. This is Nie Mingjue’s and Lan Xichen’s thing and he doesn’t have the right to interfere with it.
If they want to go back to being friends like before, they have to figure it out for themselves.
“Listen, Mingjue,” Lan Xichen finally says as he puts his now empty cup down, “about that last meeting.”
Jiang Cheng sees Nie Mingjue tense but he’s glad that someone finally brought it up.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Nie Mingjue rushes out and he means it, too, Jiang Cheng knows that.
Nie Mingjue is quick to anger, his temper always flaring because of the most inconsequential things, and his fight with Lan Xichen was by now means inconsequential, but he always feels bad about it afterwards.
He’s been working on it with a therapist, but it’s not going that well, Jiang Cheng knows, which just frustrates Nie Mingjue more.
“That’s—okay,” Lan Xichen says with a wince, and even Jiang Cheng can tell that it’s clearly not okay for him and he has to watch as Nie Mingjue’s face falls.
“I really am sorry,” he reiterates and Lan Xichen looks to the side.
“But are you sorry about how you treated A-Yao as well?” Lan Xichen whispers and Jiang Cheng’s eyes snap to Nie Mingjue to gauge his reaction.
“I’m—no,” Nie Mingjue honestly gives back, squaring his shoulders. “He betrayed me; I trusted him and he misused that trust. I’m not sorry I yelled at him, or broke off contact with him. There’s nothing I have to feel sorry for. He hurt me first.”
Jiang Cheng is insanely proud of Nie Mingjue for stating it that clearly, but Lan Xichen only frowns at his words.
“Mingjue, you have to see it from his perspective as well,” he starts and where Nie Mingjue before held himself upright he now slumps over.
His hand is opening and closing around nothing and Jiang Cheng can see how distressed he is that his best friend is yet again not on his side and Jiang Cheng simply sees red.
“That’s enough,” he snaps out, slamming his hand onto the table, making Lan Xichen flinch.
“Wanyin,” Nie Mingjue starts but Jiang Cheng cuts him off with a gesture.
“No. No!” He fixes Lan Xichen with a glare. “You’re so goddamn eager to make everyone understand Jin Guangyao’s perspective and yet you don’t even care about Mingjue’s! He doesn’t need to see it from his perspective; you have to see it from both their perspectives at least. But you don’t even stop to acknowledge that Mingjue got hurt, and I don’t just mean emotionally. He got physically hurt and yet here you are, preaching to him how he has to understand the one who hurt him. Why can’t you understand Mingjue for a change?” Jiang Cheng demands to know.
“It’s not that easy,” Lan Xichen whispers. “A-Yao got hurt as well.”
Jiang Cheng snorts at that, because from what he remembers, Jin Guangyao got to walk away unscathed while Nie Mingjue had to stay in the hospital for a few days.
“Well, he brought it unto himself if he’s emotionally hurt. Mingjue on the other hand did nothing wrong!”
“That’s not true,” Lan Xichen gives back, making Nie Mingjue flinch and Jiang Cheng fixes him with an icy glare.
“Tell me, Lan Xichen, are you thinking with your brain or your dick?” he wants to know. “Because I think it might be purely your dick speaking right now. Did the lithe, nimble body get to you that much that you’re disregarding years of friendship for that?”
“It’s not—I love him,” Lan Xichen tells them and Nie Mingjue moves away from the table.
“I need you to leave,” he presses out before he rushes out of the room.
Lan Xichen stares after him, but Jiang Cheng gets up as well.
“I’ll accompany you to the door,” he says and it’s not an offer.
Lan Xichen seems to notice that, because he gets up as well and makes his way over to the front door.
“Will you—will you tell him—”
“I will tell him shit,” Jiang Cheng gives back. “If you can’t even attempt to understand him, if you can’t even value your childhood friend enough to give him the benefit of the doubt, then I will do absolute shit for you. Do not contact him again until you’re at least ready to listen to his side of the story without being biased.”
Lan Xichen gives a short nod at that, before Jiang Cheng basically forces him outside of their apartment and it’s a special kind of satisfaction to close the door right into his face.
Jiang Cheng takes a deep breath once he locked the door and then he hurries into the bedroom.
Nie Mingjue is sitting on the bed, staring into nothing and Jiang Cheng immediately goes over to hug him.
“I’m so sorry it went like that,” Jiang Cheng whispers, pressing Nie Mingjue’s head to his stomach and Nie Mingjue slings his arms around him in return.
“I thought—why can’t he at least try?” Nie Mingjue asks, his voice thick with tears and Jiang Cheng has to swallow against his own tears.
“I don’t know,” he honestly says. “I really don’t know.”
“You don’t—you don’t think he’s right, do you?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng snorts at that question.
“Excuse me, was my outburst not enough proof that I am absolutely, completely on your side?”
“No, it was, you’re right, I’m sorry, I’m being stupid,” Nie Mingjue mutters and Jiang Cheng bends down to kiss his head.
“You’re being hurt by someone you trusted, who you know since you were a little kid. It’s normal to feel like this,” Jiang Cheng reassures him. “But I will always be on your side.”
“I love you,” Nie Mingjue mutters into his stomach and Jiang Cheng scratches his scalp.
“I love you, too,” he gives back and then topples them over onto the bed. “And now it’s cuddle time,” he decides and it’s not like Nie Mingjue is complaining, with how he’s arranging Jiang Cheng to his liking.
“Best time of the day,” Nie Mingjue decides and then falls silent.
Jiang Cheng knows that it will probably be a setback for Nie Mingjue and his healing, but he’s certain that Nie Mingjue will work through this as well.
Jiang Cheng’s soul is strong and he will always have Jiang Cheng as a support.
And Jiang Cheng hopes that it will be enough.