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Halloween was Nie Huaisang’s favorite season. Nie Huaisang liked to tease his boyfriend more than most things he liked to do, so it was a daily occurrence. Both of these statements apart and combined spelt doom for Jiang Cheng. And sadly, this Halloween they were combined.
Nie Huaisang slammed the giant Spirit Halloween bag in his hands down on his boyfriend’s desk, where said boyfriend was trying to work on his Physics homework.
“What do you think about couples costumes?” He asked with a wicked grin. Jiang Cheng took one look at what the costume was before going back to his work with a shake of his head.
“I’m not wearing that.”
🎃
He ended up wearing it.
If his boyfriend was one thing, he was a fucking stubborn motherfucker. He was also incredibly persuasive, and not above blackmailing you if needed. Like he said, doom was spelled out before he had even been able to brace himself. He loved Nie Huaisang, but the man was a scary motherfucker if you didn’t have him on your side. Most times even then.
Walking down the aisles of all different kinds of food at the town’s carnival in a fucking Glitter Spring outfit of all things made Jiang Cheng feel ridiculous. However, Nie Huaisang in a Glitter Breeze outfit next to him looked ethereal and matching with him, as corny as it was, was cute. Or whatever, he didn’t know. He still didn’t like how exposed his legs were. He just thanked the lord that Wei Wuxian was not here to see nor document this experience, though he had a sinking suspicion his boyfriend had sent his shitty brother a picture.
The carnival food was good, though, which was not something he was expecting when it came to a shitty carnival open once a year and abandoned the rest. He still couldn’t really process how it just seemed to pop right up, even though he knew it was more than that. Still.
“A-Cheng, let’s go to the House of Mirrors!” Nie Huaisang cried out, pointing with the hand not holding Jiang Cheng’s. The taller man shrugged and nodded, content to let the other just tug him around all day until he was content.
Looking at his magically girlified body in the silly mirrors was also incredibly entertaining, even though his boyfriend tried multiple times to jump out at him to scare him (if anyone asked, he claimed Nie Huaisang had not succeeded).
With all of the silly stunts Nie Huaisang kept pulling, Jiang Cheng could only smile. This date wasn’t exactly his style (but then again what date was), but Jiang Cheng was happy as long as Nie Huaisang was there.
🎃
He took back his words about being happy as long as Nie Huaisang was there. Nie Huaisang was many things, but being able to stop him from getting mad at the very rigged carnival games was not one of those things.
He could feel the sweat dripping down his face as he threw three more balls at the cans in the booth. He let out another groan as he missed the very last one.
“A-Cheng, you’ve been at this for an hour and spent a lot more money than you should’ve, we should go.” Nie Huaisang tried to reason with him, sighing at how worked up the other was by a stupid carnival game. Jiang Cheng shook his head.
“One more time, it’s only one more.” He argued. Nie Huaisang sighed but just let him continue.
“One last time.”
(The giant panda he held on their way out of the carnival was totally worth it in Jiang Cheng’s opinion.)
🎃
“That’s the fourth poor paper ghost you’ve killed,” Nie Huaisang said, giggling at the crumpled paper in his hand, “I didn’t know you were so bad at crafts, A-Cheng.” Jiang Cheng glared at him.
“I’m not terrible at crafts, these instructions are just bullshit.” He complained, crumpling another ghost in his hands. He shifted a bit to make the skirt he was still wearing more comfortable.
They had gone home from the carnival a bit ago before Nie Huaisang had mentioned making paper Halloween decorations. Seeing as it wasn’t extremely late, Jiang Cheng agreed. He just didn’t realize how absolutely terrible he happened to be at arts and crafts. He had a pile of failed paper ghosts, bats, and pumpkins around him to prove it.
Nie Huaisang’s side of the table was much better, with neat little origami of every supernatural Halloween creature you could think of. He even made a witch!
Nie Huaisang giggled.
“It’s alright, A-Cheng, I think they’re cute. However, we should probably make one of these at least good enough for A-Ling to tell what they are.” Nie Huaisang smiled, not unkindly. Jiang Cheng groaned and let his head fall on the table, making his boyfriend laugh.
“This is useless.”
“Wrong! Get up, grumpy, let me help you,” Nie Huaisang scooted his chair to his side, poking him until he sighed and sat up. Nie Huaisang grabbed some paper and showed his boyfriend how to fold the paper correctly, sometimes directly guiding his hands. When they were finished, a tiny origami pumpkin sat in Jiang Cheng’s palm.
“Huh. It’s not bad.” Jiang Cheng admitted. Nie Huaisang smiled.
“I’m sure A-Ling will love it. You can give it to him tomorrow when you get him to babysit.” Nie Huaisang said, getting up and kissing his temple. Jiang Cheng nodded.
“Are you heading to bed?” He asked. Nie Huaisang nodded.
“You should practice more, but don’t leave me waiting for too long, okay?” Nie Huaisang said, causing his boyfriend to nod in response.
Once the other man was truly gone, Jiang Cheng picked up another piece of paper. He was going to make something for the other, no matter how much paper it took.
And when he presented the paper bat he had made (with quite a few pieces of paper) to his boyfriend, the sleepy grin Nie Huaisang gave him was definitely worth it.