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"Huaisang!" Nie Mingjue shouted barging into his little brother's room.
Nie Huaisang bolted upright from where he was lounging in bed with a book. Lan Xichen couldn't help but check the title. Thank goodness it was only poetry, and they hadn't interrupted something more personal.
"Da-ge!" Huaisang shouted back, "why can't you ever knock?" As if reading Xichen's mind the young man said, "One of these days you're going to walk in on something you'll wish you didn't see."
"Stop being shameless, Huaisang. Lan-gongzi is here, and he needs your help." Huaisang peered around his brother, and spotting Xichen in the hallway, jumped out of bed and hastily straightened his robes.
"Xichen-ge! I didn't know you were in the Unclean Realm."
"You would if you were on the training field like you're supposed to be." Da-ge grumbled.
Huaisang pretended not to hear that and instead asked, "what could Xichen-ge need me for?" Before Nie Mingjue could answer though, he turned an assessing gaze to Xichen. "Oh, Da-ge! You did that diagonal strike again, didn't you? And on poor Lan Xichen!"
Nie Mingjue rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "I'm still working on it."
"In fairness, your brother did warn me that he wanted to try a new technique," Lan Xichen added, but Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes.
"Six cultivators in less than a month, Da-ge!" Huaisang groused. He turned away and began clearing papers and art supplies off the table where he worked. "At this rate, I'm going to have to start taking appointments!"
Then he pulled out a padded mat from under his bed and unrolled it across the table. "Xichen-ge, will you be so kind as to disrobe and lay on the mat?" Nie Huaisang said, turning back to his brother and Lan Xichen.
Lan Xichen felt his mouth open, but no words came out. Nie Huaisang wanted him to disrobe? In his bedroom? He closed his mouth and tried again, "I- I beg your pardon?"
"Da-ge!" Nie Huaisang flew at his brother, slapping and poking at him, "Da-ge you're the worst!" He howled.
"How did you not even tell Xichen-ge what you were bringing him to me for? Now Lan Xichen will think I'm some--some! Some shameless lech!"
Nie Mingjue for his part looked mystified. "What's to tell?" He tried and failed to shake Huaisang's grip on his robes. "How else do you treat muscle strain if not by massage?"
"Ah," Lan Xichen laughed nervously, "we Lans usually soak in cold springs for that kind of injury."
"Until your balls shrivel up and freeze off." He heard Nie Huaisang mutter under his breath.
"Oh, my apologies, Xichen," Nie Mingjue said, "Massage is very common here in Qinghe. Huaisang is definitely the best here in the fortress. A lot of the disciples come to him. "I didn't realize your sect had a rule against touching like that."
"There's no rule!" He blurted out. "I mean not like our ribbons or anything." Cringing, he tried to sound less like--what had Huaisang called it?
Some shameless lech.
Which he definitely was, if he felt this desperate to have his best friend's younger brother touch him. "This one would be grateful for any treatment deemed best." Lan Xichen tried to bow respectfully, but instead winced as pain cut across his back from shoulder to groin.
Huaisang let go of Mingjue, "Will you grab me the privacy screen by the bathtub, Da-ge?" He held a hand out to Xichen, "May I come closer, Xichen-ge?" Lan Xichen nodded. His face burned as Nie Huaisang stepped very close. "I'm going to touch you just to see if it's the same injury as the others." When Lan Xichen agreed, he began gently prodding at Xichen's spine and neck. "Can you lift your arm for me? Good, just out to the side like that. Good, thank you. Now hold it there." He pressed one hand to the front of Xichen's left shoulder and another to the back of his right hip.
The pain faded as Nie Huaisang became Lan Xichen's sole focus: the way he had to lift his arms and gaze to Xichen's; his smell like cherry blossoms and freshly ground ink; his clever hands skating along his robes and guiding Xichen into the right position. Xichen swallowed hard.
There was no rule against this-- but there should be.
Nie Mingjue returned lugging a heavy wood filigree privacy screen. "You need a lighter screen, Huaisang."
"I need my own office in the medical wing with the way you keep injuring people, Mingjue."
Once the screen was set up in front of the table, Huaisang grabbed a blanket from his bed and handed it to Lan Xichen. "You can undress, lay down and then cover yourself up with this. I'll get the rest of the supplies and you just relax." Lan Xichen snuck a glance at Nie Mingjue. His friend really didn't see anything improper, and Xichen could admit that his sect was on the prudish side.
Mingjue caught him looking and gave Xichen an encouraging nod. "You really will feel better afterwards," he said, "and if not, I will personally haul snow down from the mountain for your ice bath."
So Lan Xichen found himself alone and naked with Nie Huaisang. "Now, with your permission, I'll uncover your back and apply some oil." Nie Huaisang said briskly.
"Mn."
Goosebumps spread across him as Nie Huaisang pulled back the blanket and tucked it around his hips, and then swept the hair up from Xichen's neck.
This is medicinal, Xichen reminded himself sternly. He tried to focus on the herbal scent of the oil and not the thick, wet sounds it made as Nie Huaisang rubbed it between his hands.
"Tell me where you feel the most sensitivity," Nie Huaisang said as he ran both hands up and down the length of Xichen's back. His hands were warm, but the oil left a cooling, minty feeling in its tracks. Xichen felt his nerves wake up as Huaisang moved up and down his back. Though he was barely applying any pressure at all, Xichen's shoulder lit up with pain.
"Ah! Right there is the most sore," he said through clenched teeth.
"Mn. Even worse than the others," Nie Huaisang said disapprovingly. He must have seen Xichen frown, because he huffed a small laugh.
"Don't let that hurt your pride, Er-ge! Of all his sparring partners, Da-ge holds back the least when fighting you." Xichen couldn't help but blush, pleased that Da-ge thought so highly of him--and that Huaisang knew it. Although perhaps it didn't say much for his skill if Nie Mingjue could incapacitate him with such ease.
"Are your feet ticklish, Er-ge?" Huaisang asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"I… have no idea." How would one even go about discovering such a predilection? Xichen wondered.
"Well, I suppose I can't exactly picture Lan Wangji tickling your feet, but it is a real thing! And I'd prefer not to be kicked today."
"Today?" Xichen choked. Huaisang couldn't possibly mean--? Xichen had been wearing shoes all day while traveling and sparring. There had been no time to bathe! As he was fretting though, Huaisang flipped the blanket up to reveal his calves. There was the sound of water being wrung out from cloth and Huaisang murmured, "tell me if this tickles."
Then, grasping each of Xichen's ankles, Nie Huaisang wiped his feet with a wet washcloth. Xichen let out the most undignified, mortifying squeak. He tried to hide his face in his arms.
"Ah, sorry, I promise it won't tickle so much once we get started." Huaisang said switching back to the voice he used to calm animals, before rubbing the minty ointment over the soles of Xichen's feet. Xichen didn't know how to say that it didn't tickle. It felt--it felt-- Unbearably intimate.
Nie Huaisang hadn't done anything inappropriate. He was only helping Xichen as he would any other cultivator who was injured--even Sect Leader Nie! His mind grasped frantically for something, anything to distract him. "Why feet?" He asked. Like an idiot. "I mean, um, what is the purpose, medically speaking, for the feet?" Xichen bit his tongue before he could spout more nonsense and make Nie Huaisang, rightfully, call for his brother to have Xichen banished.
"Feet have many purposes, medically speaking," Huaisang said. It sounded like he was smiling.
Please let him think I was joking, Xichen silently prayed.
"What I am doing, relates to how your feet channel qi through your meridians and into the earth." Huaisang pressed firmly along the outer edge of Xichen's foot and arch before moving in to massage the heel, ball, and toes.
It felt amazing and terrifying. How was Xichen to know that Huaisang's thumbs rubbing small circles up and down the tender skin of his feet would send heat surging up through his body? That once Huaisang touched him there, he would want those small, strong hands on him everywhere?
"So you see, each area of the foot has an endpoint that matches the body's meridians. Da-ge could explain it better than me, of course, but the Nie fighting style is all about breaking your opponent's stance while staying grounded yourself."
"All of the areas of the body can be affected by the foot?" Xichen wheezed.
"Exactly! So that attack Da-ge did? The strike was to your right shoulder, but," Huaisang began demonstrating where each pressure point lay. "You also feel it in your ribs and lungs, your neck and back--"
Xichen marveled at the corresponding twinges of pain and relief as Huaisang moved.
"This point here should help release the shock absorbed by your groin and left hip when you tried to counter the blow." Nie Huaisang dug his knuckles into the flesh of Xichen's heel.
Unbidden came the mental image of Nie Huaisang walking on Xichen, grinding his heel into Xichen's back, pinning him down-- An awful, punched-out sound escaped him.
"Feels good right?" Nie Huaisang said, cheerfully unaware of what he was doing to Er-ge's heart, and other places.
"You'll still be a little sore tomorrow, but nothing a nice, warm, salt bath won't fix."
If he got out of this ordeal with his dignity intact, Xichen swore he'd never take a warm bath again. Only the cold spring for him! That surely was what the Lan ancestors intended for their stupid, lovesick progeny.
"Now that the meridians in your feet have been reengaged, I can work on your back." Huaisang continued, pulling the blanket away from Xichen's torso and covering his legs again.
Indeed, when he applied pressure, the pain no longer sat knotted up in Xichen's shoulder. It still hurt-- but after the initial flare, Xichen sensed his spiritual energy shifting to redistribute the pain and find equilibrium.
He blinked. His mind felt clearer too. "How did you learn to do this, Huaisang?"
"It's very common here in Qinghe. Probably in other places too with non-cultivators-- We can't all rely on golden cores to heal ourselves."
Xichen heard a slight note of perhaps bitterness in the young man's voice. He longed to see Huaisang's face, but of course couldn't turn around. Did Huaisang think that Xichen, like so many others, looked down on him for not being a strong cultivator? Xichen scolded himself for being more concerned with his awkward infatuation than with Nie Huaisang's skill.
"This one is most thankful for your time and expertise, Nie-er gongzi."
Huaisang giggled, "no need to be so formal, Xichen-ge!" But then he stopped, hands going feather-light in their probing. "--oh! That's interesting," he murmured.
"Is something wrong?"
"Hm. Probably nothing, but…" he trailed off, one hand at the pulse point of Xichen's neck and the other just below the shoulder blade. "Do you remember if Da-ge shifted his weight forward on his right foot as he struck?"
"… I do not."
"Hmm. What about your arms? How high would you say they were at the moment you blocked Da-ge's attack?"
"Maybe about chest height?" Xichen guessed. He'd never heard Nie Huaisang speak like this before. Or rather, Huaisang only ever sounded so focused, so curious when discussing his paintings or his birds. Never anything to do with martial arts.
Never anything to do with Lan Xichen.
Xichen closed his eyes and tried to visualize his spar with Mingjue: "Your brother moved very quickly. He led with his right foot, but I didn't see his final stance. "I blocked some of the blow as it came down. Although as you can see, I wasn't able to bring my guard up high enough to protect my shoulder. "
"Maybe not, but you came closer than the others." Huaisang said thoughtfully. "Ah, I don't usually do this sort of thing, but--" he paused. Xichen held his breath knowing he would absolutely do anything Nie Huaisang suggested. "What if, just this once, I told you how to beat Da-ge?"
Xichen sat, gently plucking at the strings of his guqin. He did not play anything formal, but rather snatches of folk songs and melodies he learned in childhood. Which was good because his music was almost entirely drowned out by the bickering Nie brothers.
Nie Mingjue lay stretched out on Huaisang's table. Sect Leader Nie was so tall that a cushioned footstool needed to be placed at one end so his feet didn't dangle off.
"This is taking forever! I need to get back to supervising the new disciples." Nie Mingjue complained trying to look over his shoulder at Huaisang.
"No, you need to teach them about proper recovery." Huaisang snapped, digging his knuckles into Mingjue's back. "By. Example."
Mingjue snorted, and Huaisang smiled. And Xichen would never understand the relationship the Nie brothers had-- couldn't even imagine speaking with A-Zhan in that manner-- but Lan Xichen could see the affection between them.
"Speaking of teaching, maybe Lan Xichen can show you that new move he did today. Knocked me flat on my back!"
"Actually, A-Sang has been the one teaching me how--" Lan Xichen started to say, but Huaisang shot him a look. "-- how to paint silks." He finished. It sounded extremely unconvincing.
But, true! Silk painting was one of the many activities he'd done with Huaisang in the two weeks since he'd arrived in the Unclean Realm. Nie Huaisang, as it turned out, had many skills: painting, animal husbandry, writing poetry, swordsmanship… kissing.
Nie Mingjue gave a threatening growl. "I don't need to know about the two of you and your love life! Honestly, Xichen, I thought the First Jade would be a better influence on my didi."
Nie Huaisang just snickered, and Lan Xichen, for once feeling perfectly relaxed, played on.