Chapter Text
“I’m so sorry to dump him on you on such short notice, A-Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng shook his head, smiling as his elder sister passed her son over to him. The little boy, only five, was roused from his nap quite ungraciously, as he furrowed his brows and reached his arms for Jiang Cheng to hold him.
Jin Ling was still half asleep when Jiang Cheng held him in his arms, bouncing slightly to placate him when he whined.
His sister smiled, sighing in relief once Jin Ling's extra weight was off of her. She looked tired, more tired than she deserved to be, but Jiang Cheng guessed that when your idiot husband breaks his leg while falling down the stairs and has to spend the night in Urgent Care, there isn't much else that you can do.
She handed him Jin Ling's bag, instructing Jiang Cheng on where everything he needed was, before leaving in a hurry.
“I can't thank you enough,” She hugged Jiang Cheng from the side, fluttering kisses on his face till he squirmed in embarrassment, trying to push her off.
“Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it Jie, I've got everything under control. Just tell Jin Zixuan to get better soon.”
At the sound of his uncle's voice and the click of the closing door, Jin Ling roused in his arms, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
“Jiujiu?”
“Yeah, it's me. Are you excited to have a sleepover with Jiujiu? Jasmine will be excited to see you.”
Jiang Cheng doubted that Jin Ling heard his full sentence, but the words, ‘sleepover’ and ‘Jasmine’ were enough to fully wake Jin Ling up, as he lifted his head to scan Jiang Cheng's apartment.
“Jasmine?” He asked excitedly, as a pitter pattering of tiny footsteps rounded the corner from Jiang Cheng's room, the small dog yipping at the sight of Jin Ling.
Jasmine was arguably Jin Ling's favorite person— er, furry friend? —, aside from his own puppy, Fairy. Jiang Cheng took pride in how he and his nephew were similar in that regard— always preferring the company of their pets to that of humans.
Jin Ling squirmed out of Jiang Cheng's grip, immediately running to hug Jasmine and give her kisses.
“Jasmine, I missed you!”
Jasmine barked happily in reply, rubbing herself all over Jin Ling in order to get more pets.
Jiang Cheng watched on fondly for a moment, reminded of his own childhood puppies, before the buzzing of the phone in his pocket broke him out of his reverie.
He opened it to see the most recent message,
‘I'm downstairs right now. Finished getting ready yet?’
Jiang Cheng sighed as he read it, typing back a response.
‘Change of plans. Come upstairs.’
He got a question mark in response, but he shook his head and put his phone down to focus back on Jin Ling.
A couple minutes later, loud footsteps were heard from the main hallway and his door unlocked and opened, revealing his boyfriend who sported a look as if Jiang Cheng had completely trampled on his heart.
“A-Cheng, how could you bail at the very last minute? Don’t you love me anymore?”
He was obviously teasing, as Jiang Cheng could tell by the playful lilt in his voice, so he simply rolled his eyes as Wei Wuxian came up behind him, wrapping his arms around Jiang Cheng’s middle and nestling his head into the crook of his boyfriend's neck.
“I even put my nicest clothes on~ How could you do this to me?” He whined, and Jiang Cheng pushed him off.
“Quit it. I’m sorry about our date, I’ll make it up to you next week, okay?”
Wei Ying huffed.
“Fine. Maybe you can make it up to me now, though?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and leaned forward to kiss Jiang Cheng, but the latter turned away at the last moment, causing Wei Ying’s lips to smack against his cheek.
“Xian-ge, we can’t.”
“Aw, why not?”
Before Wei Ying could pout about Jiang Cheng’s avoidance any more, though, a small but indignant voice came from the couch on the living room.
“You again?!” Jin Ling exclaimed with irritation, pointing at Jiang Cheng’s boyfriend and looking at him as if he had never seen anything more disgusting in his life.
“Get your hands off my Jiujiu!”
Wei Ying had let go of Jiang Cheng in surprise, eyes widened and puckered lips halfway to Jiang Cheng’s face when he brightened, approaching the youth with interest.
“Ah, I see why you canceled now,” He murmured to Jiang Cheng, before ruffling Jin Ling’s hair.
“Sorry little man, I didn’t see you there.”
The five year old didn’t react too kindly to such a blase response to his anger, and he swatted at Wei Ying’s hand in his hair with his much smaller one. He stuck his tongue out at Wei Ying, hoping to offend the other.
“Stop it, thug!”
Wei Ying snorted as Jiang Cheng suddenly approached them, the stern look on his face directed at Jin Ling but snapping to Wei Ying once another chuckle escaped.
“A-Ling! That’s not nice to say at all, where did you even learn that word?”
Jin Ling pouted, crossing his arms in a manner much like Jiang Cheng. He avoided his Jiujiu’s gaze, upset at being chastised, but replied defiantly,
“That’s what Baba calls ‘im. He bother Jiujiu and look scary. Thug.”
Wei Ying had full-on cackled at that point, holding his stomach with the force of his laughter while Jiang Cheng sighed, running a hand over his face. He’d have to talk about this to his brother in law, later. His sister didn’t seem to mind his choice in partner for the most part, even seemed to enjoy Wei Ying’s company, but Jin Zixuan had always been harder to please and more traditional. Though Jiang Cheng felt as though he’d mellowed down quiet a bit over the years and especially after having Jin Ling, there was still that distinct and judgy bit of JIn in him, that Jiang Cheng would have to address.
“Just because your Baba says it doesn’t mean you have to say it. It’s very rude to say that to someone's face like that.”
Sensing Jiang Cheng’s serious demeanor, Jin Ling’s prickly exterior immediately melted, his doe eyes going big and filling quickly with tears. He looked so much like his mother in that moment whereas he’d always looked like his father, and this had Jiang Cheng sighing again as he brought the boy into a hug.
“Jiujiu, A-Ling’s sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“I know. But you have to be nice, alright?”
“Okay. I love you, Jiujiu. Don’t be mad at A-Ling anymore, kay?”
Jiang Cheng hugged him tight.
“Okay. I love you, too. But you have to say sorry to Xian-ge.” Jin Lin visibly balked at the thought.
Said Xian-ge soon interrupted them, from where he’d migrated over to Jiang Cheng’s fridge. He pulled out a cake that Jiang Cheng had brought yesterday, sticking his finger in to scoop a dollop of frosting.
“Babe, it’s fine. He’ll warm up to me eventually, and it’s not as if I’ve done anything to convince him that I’m not, in fact, a thug. By the way, did Yanli-jie already leave? How long’s the kid gonna stay for?”
Jin Ling’s cheeks immediately puffed up again, and he hugged Jiang Cheng tighter.
“Me and Jiujiu and Jasmine are having a sleepover. You’re not ‘vited.” He buried himself back into Jiang Cheng, the latter merely shaking his head.
It was going to be a long night, alright.
“Jie needs to take care of Jin Ling’s dad, so he’ll be spending the night with me. I’ll probably have to take him to preschool tomorrow, too. Do you want to stay, anyway?”
Wei Ying nodded, shrugging as he said, “Yeah, why not?”
He grabbed a fork from the cupboard but jumped, yelping once he’d realized that Jasmine had materialized at his feet. The dog regarded Wei Ying with a blank, intimidating stare, as she was prone to do in his presence, before trotting along on her way as if she hadn’t even seen the man.
“A-Cheng, your dog’s giving me the stink eye again!”
Yes, it was going to be a long night, indeed.