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Jiang Cheng lets himself into Nie Mingjue’s and Nie Huaisang’s apartment, looking forward to a relaxing evening with them. He knows that hope is futile almost the moment he steps foot into the hallway, though.
“I’m back,” he says, a habit that has ingrained itself over the last couple of months.
“A-Cheng, is that you?” Nie Huaisang yells across the apartment, clearly agitated, and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.
“Of course it’s me,” he yells back. “Who else have you given a key?”
“Thank the gods you’re here,” Nie Huaisang breathes out as he comes into view and then he throws himself at Jiang Cheng, slinging his arms around his neck and hanging off his frame.
“What is going on?” Jiang Cheng asks more amused than concerned because if Nie Huaisang is acting over the top like this then nothing really bad can be happening.
“Da-ge is trying to kill me. You have to stop him,” Nie Huaisang tells him and just on cue Nie Mingjue comes into the hallway, drying his hands on a towel, a scowl on his face.
“I am cooking,” he corrects Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng snorts.
“You’re trying to kill me!” Nie Huaisang accuses him, turning around just far enough to glare at Nie Mingjue. “With you it’s only meat this, meat that. A-Cheng, you have to save me.”
“You know, meat is not that bad for you,” Jiang Cheng says as he gently undoes Nie Huaisang’s grip on him.
“It is if it’s just steak,” Nie Huaisang grumbles and then turns big, pleading puppy eyes on Jiang Cheng. “You’ll save me and make me something good, right? Something with vegetables? Something that’s healthy?”
“You’re acting as if I’m poisoning you,” Nie Mingjue huffs. “It’s just a bit of meat.”
“With no side dishes,” Nie Huaisang hisses at him. “Disgusting.” He turns back to Jiang Cheng “A-Cheng?”
Jiang Cheng has to suppress an amused smile at Nie Huaisang’s antics.
“I can make you something,” he finally concedes and then winks at Nie Mingjue. “But since the meat is already there, you’re going to eat it.”
“You’re so mean to me,” Nie Huaisang cries out and actually stomps his foot. “You’re just as mean as da-ge,” he declares and then promptly stomps off.
“What is he, five?” Jiang Cheng asks as he finally puts away his jacket and Nie Mingjue laughs.
“Sometimes it definitely feels like that. But no matter what he says, you don’t have to cook if you do not want to today. I am perfectly able to keep us all alive.” He pauses for a moment. “In fact, I did keep him alive until you came around.”
“And you’d keep him alive even without me,” Jiang Cheng says as he pats Nie Mingjue’s arm. “He’s just a drama queen, you know how he is. Watch me make two vegetarian dishes in a row.”
Nie Mingjue snorts.
“He’ll cry at me to finally make some meat again, because you’re trying to turn him into a bunny.”
“Exactly.”
“There’s just no pleasing him,” Nie Mingjue laments and Jiang Cheng shrugs.
“You have to please yourself once in a while, too.,” he reminds Nie Mingjue, because he sometimes forgets to look after himself with how busy he is looking after everyone else.
“I know that,” Nie Mingjue sighs out.
They have been working on it and Nie Mingjue has gotten better at it as well, so Jiang Cheng gives him a smile.
“Hence the meat,” he guesses and Nie Mingjue nods. “Let’s just throw some vegetables on the side of the steaks and call it a day,” he decides and pushes his sleeves up.
Everything is already laid out and Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow.
“You were not going to only make meat,” he observes and Nie Mingjue rolls his eyes in turn.
“Of course not. Like I said, Huaisang is a goddamn drama queen. Just steak. What kind of dinner would that be. I did plan to properly feed him.”
“Alright, then. You look after the meat and I get started on the vegetables?” Jiang Cheng asks but it’s more of a rhetorical question because this is how they always work together.
Silence settles over the kitchen as they work, the only sounds coming from the sizzling meat and Jiang Cheng’s chopping and he’s more than content in that moment.
“How was work?” Nie Mingjue asks when Jiang Cheng is done with the chopping and he shrugs.
“Fine,” he shortly says, even though it had been anything but, but he doesn’t want to ruin the mood right now.
“Yeah, sure. And now the truth please?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng deflates.
“How the hell do you always know?” he wants to know because Nie Mingjue has a knack for calling Jiang Cheng out on his bullshit.
“Practice.”
Jiang Cheng guesses that’s fair, seeing how often he is at the Nie house these days so he simply sighs.
“Alright, the truth then. Work sucked. I don’t want to get into it again, though, because I complained to a co-worker already and I just want to enjoy a relaxing evening, okay?”
“As long as it’s nothing that’s eating you up, we can do that,” Nie Mingjue gives back and then leans in to brush their shoulders together, just as a reminder that he’s there and that he’ll know when Jiang Cheng lies to him.
Jiang Cheng goes warm all over because it’s been a while since someone understood him as well as Nie Mingjue and it’s been even longer since someone has watched out for him like this. It sparks all kinds of emotions in Jiang Cheng and he’s quick to suppress all of them.
He got kind of good with that over time.
“Huaisang, dinner is ready!” Jiang Cheng calls into the apartment once they are done setting the table and Nie Huaisang appears in the kitchen quick as lightning.
“It smells amazing,” he praises them and Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng share a look.
“You’re doing the dishes,” they inform him in unison and Nie Huaisang slumps over the table in despair.
“Da-ge, A-Cheng, you’re so mean to me!”
“We did all the work. The least you can do is help by cleaning up.”
“Fine, fine,” Nie Huaisang grumbles, but even this is a well-used conversation.
They have this talk often enough for all of them to know how it will turn out.
They have just started in on their dinner, with Nie Huaisang recounting a more outlandish request of a client, when Jiang Cheng’s phone suddenly rings.
“Ah, sorry, it’s Wei Wuxian, I guess I should take that,” he says even as he picks up the phone already.
Wei Wuxian doesn’t call him that often and Jiang Cheng always gets a little bit worried when he does instead of texting him. It usually makes him think that something must be wrong.
“Wei Wuxian?” he answers the call.
“Chengcheng!” Wei Wuxian calls back and Jiang Cheng cringes at the hated nickname. “Where are you? When are you coming home?” he cries out and Jiang Cheng frowns at nothing.
“What the hell are you even on about? I am h—” the word dies in his mouth and Jiang Cheng turns big eyes on Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, even as he lowers the phone and ends the call, rather rudely cutting Wei Wuxian off.
“What? What is it? What do you need? Did something happen? We’ll drive you anywhere,” Nie Huaisang rambles and Nie Mingjue nods along, seemingly ready to get up this instance.
Jiang Cheng is outraged.
“Have you adopted me?” he asks them, his voice high and thin and the question makes Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang freeze in surprise. “I’m just—I’m always here, so often that I think of this as my home!” he almost yells out and he watches as the tension leaves the brothers.
“Well, to be fair, you kind of adopted yourself,” Nie Mingjue says and Nie Huaisang bursts out laughing.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jiang Cheng demands to know, still too shocked by his realization.
“It means that you never really left after that first time I brought you home,” Nie Huaisang says between his giggles and before Jiang Cheng can get all defensive about that he goes on. “Not that we mind! We love having you around, we wouldn’t change that for anything and we did tell you that you could come by whenever. It’s just—you’re the first person to really take us up on that.”
“I sleep here more nights a week than I do at my own apartment,” he whispers with mounting horror. “Should I be paying rent?”
“You’re going to breathe, first of all,” Nie Mingjue says and puts a steadying hand on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.
Jiang Cheng does take a couple of deep breaths but it does barely anything to calm him down.
“I don’t mean to be a freeloader!”
“Wanyin, you’ve been doing all the grocery shopping ever since you started coming around. I think you’re paying enough for us already. Not even to mention that we don’t have to cook anymore, since you like to do it. Believe me, there is nothing you have to worry about.”
“Did you plan this?” Jiang Cheng accuses them because how the hell did they manage to make him consider this his home when he has a perfect flat that he calls his own already.
“Of course not,” Nie Mingjue immediately reassures him, but Nie Huaisang gets a strange look on his face.
“Speak for yourself, da-ge,” he chides his brother and Jiang Cheng turns big eyes on him.
“What the hell, Huaisang!” Nie Mingjue says, clearly just as taken off guard as Jiang Cheng is.
“What do you mean you planned this?” Jiang Cheng demands to know.
“Well—” Nie Huaisang gives them his most winning smile and Jiang Cheng hates to admit it, but it’s kind of working.
He already feels calmer.
“I knew I wanted A-Cheng around all the time from the moment he first came over,” Nie Huaisang says but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“But what for?”
“Believe it or not some people just want to have you around,” Nie Huaisang snaps but he calms himself down quickly. “I wanted you around for better food,” he then says with a teasing smile. “and for da-ge, of course,” he adds in a rush and it seems as if he’d like to hide right about now.
“For me?”
“For Mingjue?”
They ask their questions at the same time and it seems like Nie Huaisang is just leaning fully into it now because he straightens up.
“I want you—” he points at Jiang Cheng—“to date my da-ge, of course.”
Silence settles over the kitchen.
“And you had to adopt me for that first?” Jiang Cheng incredulously asks because he cannot think about what Nie Huaisang just said, especially not with the way Nie Mingjue just went very, very quiet.
“Giving you a new family seemed like a good idea,” Nie Huaisang snaps back. “And it’s not so bad, right? You’re here a lot and you like it here, right?”
“I think of this apartment as my home, apparently, so I would guess the answer is yes!” Jiang Cheng almost shouts back, still completely taken off guard by that revelation.
Not even his family house felt like home to him.
“Huaisang, out,” Nie Mingjue suddenly says and Nie Huaisang flinches at his tone, before he scrambles to his feet and flees the kitchen without another word.
“Mingjue?” Jiang Cheng carefully asks, looking over to Nie Mingjue who has gone serious.
“You don’t have to listen to him,” Nie Mingjue says without meeting Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “You’re welcome here whenever, and I’m happy you consider this your home, but you don’t have to listen to him. He’s just talking bullshit, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“What are you even on about?” Jiang Cheng asks before his eyes go huge. “Oh, you mean the—yeah, no, sure—haha, of course not,” he awkwardly gets out and fiddles with his chopsticks.
“I told him to never mention this to you, I’m sorry,” Nie Mingjue finishes, his voice much more subdued now and Jiang Cheng frowns.
“Mention what?”
“The dating thing,” Nie Mingjue mutters. “I know you don’t want to—I told Huaisang to mind his own business but of course he never listens to me. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable—with what, exactly?” Jiang Cheng breathes out because he still doesn’t quite understand what’s going on. He has a hunch, but he doesn’t dare to trust it yet.
He needs more words from Nie Mingjue.
“I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable by reminding you that I’m in love with you,” Nie Mingjue says, more to the table than Jiang Cheng and it’s a good thing Jiang Cheng is already sitting down.
“Excuse me, what? Since when? How?” he asks, suddenly desperate to get an answer to all of these questions at once.
“What do you mean, what?” Nie Mingjue asks now as well and finally looks at Jiang Cheng. “You knew about this.”
“I sure as fuck didn’t,” Jiang Cheng breathes out because if he had known about it he would have done something about it long ago. “It’s not like you ever confessed or anything.”
“Everyone says I’m really obvious,” Nie Mingjue grumbles. “And that surely you must know.”
“Well, I didn’t, because you’re not obvious. And what did you think, that I simply didn’t return those feelings?”
“Yes,” Nie Mingjue says. “And it’s okay that you don’t.”
“I didn’t even know about this until five seconds ago, of course I return those feelings, what the hell is wrong with you?” Jiang Cheng angrily asks and stands up fast enough that his chair skids over the floor.
Nie Mingjue flinched at his sudden movement but when Jiang Cheng comes around the table he simply watches him with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open.
“Make space for me,” Jiang Cheng snaps when he arrives at Nie Mingjue’s side and Nie Mingjue almost topples his chair over in his haste.
Jiang Cheng makes sure he doesn’t break his neck by planting himself very firmly in Nie Mingjue’s lap.
“You goddamn idiot,” he whispers as he rests their foreheads together. “You weren’t obvious at all, and I’m not good at picking up on stuff like that anyways,” he tells Nie Mingjue. “I’m in love with you, too.”
“Oh,” Nie Mingjue breathes out and finally brings his hands up to rest them on Jiang Cheng’s waist. “I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know, either,” Jiang Cheng gives back.
“Everyone except you two knew, though,” Nie Huaisang very helpfully chimes in from the door and he yelps when both turn to glare at him. “Alright, out, I get it, sheesh,” he mutters and vanishes into his room again.
“He’s a menace,” Nie Mingjue mutters and Jiang Cheng would love to agree but instead he sighs.
“We’ll have to thank him, eventually. We would still be dancing around each other without him,” he reminds Nie Mingjue who seems pained by that revelation.
“He’ll be insufferable,” Nie Mingjue complaints and Jiang Cheng gives him a wicked smile.
“We’ll just have to be more insufferable,” he decides and finally leans in for a kiss.
He has dreamed about this moment a thousand times, but the real thing is so much better. Nie Mingjue’s lips are soft and the hands on Jiang Cheng’s hips are warm and he could stay like that for hours.
“Okay, alright, I get it, can I please just finish my dinner?” Nie Huaisang interrupts them after what feels like hours and Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue finally part with a soft sigh.
“Yeah, lets have dinner,” Jiang Cheng says and winks at Nie Mingjue, so that Nie Huaisang doesn’t see.
He gets off Nie Mingjue’s lap but only so that he can turn around before he sits down again.
“Would you mind giving me my plate?” Jiang Cheng innocently asks as Nie Mingjue’s hand settles high on his thigh.
Nie Huaisang is staring at them with wide eyes, the horror clear on his face.
“I guess I deserve that,” he eventually mutters and hands over the plate.
“You do,” Nie Mingjue tells him and leans in to press a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s neck.
It’s a lot more intimate than Jiang Cheng normally likes to be in front of other people but he finds that he doesn’t really mind that much. Nie Huaisang brought this onto his own head and besides, this is his home.
And Jiang Cheng can do whatever he wants in his own home.