#Writing: Juelie

[hubbery]

Meeting Juelie

Title:  Meeting Juelie Character(s): Juelie Yseone, Kikass Wosley, Glynne Cacein (Mentioned) POV Character(s): Kikass Wosley POV: Second Person, Past Tense Originally written in 2018.

"It's a murder." "Like death?" "No, like the winged beasts that flap about in the air. Feathered, black plumage with beaks orange-yellow like nails." There isn't any bite to your explanation. "Crows," you repeat. Your bones are weary and your shoes uncharacteristically heavy in the way they can only be when you've been working too long. You clear your throat to continue and your voice is echoed by a shrill caw. "The body has been here long enough for them to get a bit of meat in their beaks, and I can't say I blame them."

You're looking at another barebones, countryside crime for the record, and with the smashed teeth of your <John Doe> and the lack of a face you're probably going to have to call this one quits or haul it in.

Of course, you weren't acquainted with Juelie then, who'd been called in on your case in what you assume to be some attempt at efficient bureaucracy. The first thing you noticed was her height, tense posture, and the neutrality of her face. You wouldn't have expected her to be capable of laughter back then, called to fix as many people's messes as she was. She did her job, provided her professional opinion, and on occasion (and by that you mean more often than expected) provided more assistance than was strictly necessary. Her skills were questionable in origin but not in execution, and you made it your business not to pry. You suppose this is why you got along as well as you did.

You remember you didn't get along with Juelie so great when you were ribbing her at work. She was a few sweeps and a head or two taller than you, and she reminded you of a willow with her gangly limbs and slightly hunched appearance. You learned later that the curvature of her spine was work related rather than the fault of genetics, and you kept your mouth shut once you realized how much larger she was in a room when she stood up straight. You're lucky she found you strangely endearing by trying to start some kind of camaraderie rather than the nuisance you know you must have been.

You think the first time she spoke to you of her own accord was over a stack of paperwork as thick as your hand was wide. "It's a wonder," she said while depositing the stack on your desk like the waste of ink and foliage it was, "that they always give those that are competent work that wastes their talent." You thought she was speaking in generalities when she left, hair flowing behind her on her way out the door. You didn't realize until hours into your own shift that she was talking about you, and you don't know if it's such a bad thing that you agree with her.

That was probably where your problem with her started if you're going to be honest with yourself. You're definitely not flushed for her, and you're so close to pale it's painful—the word friend tastes so foreign in your mouth it's a wonder you have any. She tells you one day over some poor sods corpse that she doesn't have any friends. She's squatted in a patch of gravel, lines slowly growing more permanent in those red splashes of color she calls shoes, glasses pressing indentations into the bridge of her nose she'll complain about later. You don't agree with her assessment, and for the first time since you met her you've finally found something to disagree about. The feeling that gives you is an odd, indecipherable swirl in the pit of your stomach that gives you a serious pause to the words about to come out of your mouth. You make it your business to pry.

You like to think you've come better acquainted with Juelie over the perigees, but she continues to shock you with her quiet dedication to being herself. She doesn't have the air about her you'd expect from someone of her blood, and gods it took you far too long to get the lowdown on what in hells her blood was. 

You were working over some stiff together when she'd rolled up her starched white sleeves in preparation for a close examination. She never wore short sleeves, and in a moment you got all you needed to know about why. She wasn't thin as you'd initially thought, for one. You knew she was strong before you got a glimpse of the hell that was her left arm, and the stuttering click that left your throat in an expression of anxiety only gets you the slightest glance from the corner of Juelie’s eye. 

The gal has scars twisting up her arm something wicked, and on her wrist is the puckered, purplish, bruising shape of what to you is clearly a bite mark. The edges are lined like teeth and the skin raised like newly healed tissue, and you avert your eyes before she catches you staring. You kind of fucking hate her for having so much going on in her life that you don't know about, but to have gone through all that without bragging?

She was smarter than you gave her credit for. 

You think it's been almost a sweep of you knowing her when you finally pop the question. You're sitting on the corner of your desk with your mug in your hand and she's leaning against the threshold of your door like she isn't almost too tall for it, head ducked out of necessity and to savor the drink pressed to her lips. 

“Yseone,” you clear your throat, suddenly struck with a sense of uncertainty. 

She pauses and raises her eyes to meet yours, back straightening and mug lowering as she directs on you her full attention. You feel small and monumentally stupid all at once until she opens her mouth to address you, and you remember the troll you're talking to doesn't have the fangs to tear open your throat. You're surprisingly focused on how flat her teeth are. 

“Yes?” She doesn't sound as if she's nervous about being asked something out of the blue. You're too busy fussing with your collar to think too much about her reaction.

You learned about her moirail a time after she'd become a regular fixture at your desk, the same mug in her fingers filled with your coffee just how you liked it. You didn't know how she'd figured that part out, and she didn't tell you when you asked.

“Are we friends?”

“Funny,” she smiles. “I was just asking myself the same thing.” 

You're shocked when she laughs, her eyes lighting up with mirth that's as alien to you as the brightness of her face or the fact she has the ability to smile. You hide your own smile behind your mug and a steady stream of breakroom coffee, pleased.

[disastermages]

do you think you'll publish stories about Mingli(?) or Jueli(?) any time soon?

i think their potential is great and they would have been such a powercouple. too bad she got married to jin zixuan in canon, yanli's kindness and strength is wasted on a scumbag like him.

it's entirely possible that I will! for me, writing getting done relies on me having inspiration to write and then having time to write it, and work has been killing me a little lately so I haven't had much time for it.

that being said, I've had an idea for a horror fic for this ship for upwards of a year now, I've just been thinking on it real hard

[greenwitching]

I blame @guqin-and-flute for encouraging this

“They’re conspiring about something over there.” Nie Mingjue said plainly, bringing both himself and Jiang Yanli to a stop as he squinted ahead at his brother and both of Jiang Yanli’s, their heads bowed over a table but hands moving in gestures that called attention.

Jiang Yanli’s hand on his arm tightens ever so slightly as she leans up on her toes to see the three of them from where they stand, and Nie Mingjue tries not to think about how utterly adorable it was, but then she’s lifting her sleeve to her face to muffle her giggle.

“A-Xian and A-Cheng have been planning my wedding since they were boys,” Jiang Yanli says smiling and shaking her head, impossibly fond and making Nie Mingjue even more fond in exchange. “They’d even learned Jin sect’s wedding traditions because they wanted it to be perfect for me.” They begin moving again and Nie Mingjue tries not to flinch. He wasn’t an insecure man, but he knew he wouldn’t have been Jiang Yanli’s mother’s first choice, not that she had much say in the matter any longer.

Part of him wondered if he’d be haunted by the ghost of a sharp tongued mother in law after their wedding, but Jiang Yanli’s voice cuts through those thoughts, sharper than his saber.

“I overheard them whispering at dinner last night,” This time Jiang Yanli’s thumb rolls over the well toned muscle of Nie Mingjue’s bicep rather than squeezing again, “they’d already started in on A-Sang about Nie sect’s traditions, but they stopped talking anytime I got close enough to hear.” The next time Nie Mingjue looks down, he sees dark eyes sparkling up at him and his throat threatens to squeeze shut with the amount of emotions that flood him.

“I could have told them.” He murmurs, throwing a look over his shoulder just in time to see Huaisang hold his fan in front of Wei Wuxian’s face faux threateningly.

“I’m sure A-Sang wants his Da-ge to have a perfect wedding too.” Jiang Yanli says gently, her smile becoming anything but demure now, and how Jin Zixuan could do anything but fall down on his knees in the face of it is beyond Nie Mingjue.

[maisymousette]

Blow Out All The Candles (Snippet)

(real talk - 7k in to my first foray into MDZS on a nmj/jyl fic and 5k is just pure gentle smut of their wedding night. this is them getting to know each other and learning to let their guards down and that its okay to love each other and fuck i could ramble for years. pls give feedback if you got any!!!) ((i also just realised this is 1.5k wtf am i doing))

Nie Mingjue had never peeled a lotus root before in his life, but he was finding the activity oddly soothing in a mediative way. When you added in Jiang Yanli’s gentle humming as she prepared what she needed in the kitchen around them, he was fiercely glad she had invited him to cook with her, to spend time with her in such a meaningful way. It made his heart stutter to think that she truly wanted to spend time with him, to get to know him… it had to be a step in the right direction, surely.

He had minimal knowledge of culinary skills, aside from what he needed to know when out travelling or night-hunting and making your own meal was the only guarantee of food. He knew how to skin and roast a hare, skewer a fish over a stick on a log fire, what basic berries were edible or poisonous, but he had never had the experience of making a complete home meal from scratch.

He watched as she walked with confidence around the kitchen - one he knew she had been sneaking into for a few weeks now – and he felt a surge of affection so strongly he nearly broke the knife in his hand with the sudden clench of his fist. Ah, he thought suddenly, she must feel so comfortable here. He was a fool, he berated himself, for not realising sooner. He wondered how difficult it would be to commission her own private kitchen, instead of her waiting until the cover of night and until all the cooks had left to come to the one place in Qinghe where she clearly felt most secure.

“I was never skilled in cultivation, and I know my mother was always disappointed by that,” She spoke into the still night air quietly, her eyes locked on the soup pot as she checked if the water was boiling correctly. He hummed to let her know he was listening as he kept at his task.

“As a first-born daughter to a powerful Sect leader, I was a disappointment from the beginning. Not that my parents loved me any less,” she spoke in a measured tone, collecting the lotus roots he had finished peeling. “I know my father loved me. My mother loved me too, in her own way; I just wasn’t what she wanted. I was born too small, too delicate, not suited for the exertions that came with a true cultivators life. I smiled too easily, she said, and my voice was too soft. I never spoke back, I always held my tongue, and I was underwhelming in every skill she attempted to teach me.”

She grabbed a package of herbs Nie Mingjue couldn’t name from a woven basket he hadn’t noticed earlier, and placed a small pile in front of herself and handing him a knob of ginger. “Cut it into small pieces, please,” she instructed softly, attending to her own pile of herbs.

“When it came to being a woman in a cultivators world, my mother was the exception. I think she hoped I would be too, and she didn’t know how to handle me when I couldn’t do what she did,” she smiled wanly, taking his small pile of ginger pieces and placing them in the small bowl that was blanching the pork ribs.

“I was everything she wasn’t, and I was fine with that. I was a slow learner, she always said, and it was true. Cultivating my golden core was more difficult for me compared to my brothers, and I was never clever enough with academic pursuits.”

“Everyone has their strengths,” he hedged carefully, feeling oddly vulnerable without a task to keep his hands busy. What she was speaking of was hitting very close to his heart, and his concerns with his little brother.

“That’s true,” she smiled at him with crinkled eyes, sliding him half the peeled lotus roots with a gentle, “slice them about a thumbnail thick, please.” He nodded, observing her first few slices and trying to mirror them, the same way he learned his basic sword formations all those years ago.

“I know I’m not strong, or beautiful, or skilled, but I love my brothers. They taught me nearly everything I know. They taught me patience, they taught me diplomacy, they taught me how to handle a multitude of situations -” here, she laughed lightly, shaking her head slightly at some imagined shenanigans, he assumed, “- and they helped teach me my own value. Not everyone has to be great with a sword to have worth, or have a golden core to be important. Sometimes acknowledgement, love and care, understanding, and a warm meal can be priceless.”

She grasped a pair of nearby chopsticks and fished the pork ribs and pieces of ginger out of their small pot, adding each one into the larger boiling soup pot. She then added the herbs and her sliced lotus roots in next, indicating for him to do the same. He nodded, collecting all his sliced lotus roots in a single handful - compared to the three handfuls it took her - and placed them in the pot too, a strange feeling welling in his chest as she used a ladle to mix all the ingredients together.

“I know I’m not what you envisioned in a wife, and I know others perceive me as weak,” she turned to look at him now, her gaze never wavering from his eyes as she took one of his hands in her two tiny ones, and all he could think was I have never felt hands this soft in my entire life, “but I truly hope I am able to offer something to you in this marriage. Before, I had been promised to another who never chose me and I lived my life knowing it was all my parents ever thought I was fit for. I had watched their own volatile marriage, and resigned myself to my own with a man who didn’t want me. Now we have a choice, and I want it to be the right one for both of us,” her eyes had begun glistening with tears at this point and Nie Mingjue felt his own beginning to water in response. And people call me a brute, he thought with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Lady Jiang, anyone who perceives you as weak or lacking are fools. I saw how fiercely you defended Wei Wuxian at Phoenix Mountain and how politely you tore strips off that Jin boy. You are well aware of my own reputation, I’m sure,” he snorted, knowing exactly what image others had tried to paint of him in her mind, “and to have come here regardless, and bear your heart and intentions to me, I would have to have a head full of rocks to see you as anything but my equal.”

He paused, taking a moment to really think about what he was going to say as he knew this woman would take whatever he said to heart, and it felt only right to return what she had revealed to him tonight. He placed his free hand on the two that was cupping his other, feeling his heart jump at the smile she gave him.

“I can be ill-tempered, uncompromising, and socially blunt to the point my brother has said a blow to the head would be more subtle,” he chuckled here, feeling his chest warm as Jiang Yanli huffed a laugh with him. “You are everything I am not, Lady Jiang, and that is a good thing. You are brave, and beautiful, and something I had never expected I would find in my life. Let me court you, Jiang Yanli. Let us make this work.”

Nie Mingjue was startled as new tears suddenly fell from her eyes, following the near exact same track as the last set from a few moments ago.

“I would like nothing more,” she said sincerely, her smile blinding him as he reached out to wipe them away with his thumb.

Ah, maybe time to lighten the air.

“Now, how long until our hard work bears fruit?” He asked, looking over at the soup they had made together.

“Oh, did I forget to mention that part? We will need to wait until at least morning to enjoy it,” she laughed cheekily as she pulled away from him, turning around to take hold of a small woven basket he hadn’t noticed before. “I suspected you might like something a little more immediate though, so I made something for you a little earlier.” She was blushing as she handed him the box, oddly quiet as he opened the lid.

“Your brother mentioned you liked sweet things, so I hope this suits your tastes,” she bowed slightly towards him as he looked at the delicate osmanthus cakes hidden within, marveling at the fine flower detailing on the top that he could swear looked finer than any detailing he had seen on any cake before.

“Lady Jiang, if I hadn’t asked to court you just now, I can assure you that this would have certainly done the trick.” A laugh startled out of him as he soaked in the situation. A beautiful woman, wooing him with cakes. Truly, had the world gone mad? He smiled wider as she laughed with him, her eyes filled with more joy than he had ever seen in her before.

He already had more than he had ever hoped for.

[guqin-and-flute]

The NMJ/JYL verse... I can’t imagine JGY being very pleased because (and sorry if this is a wrong take, but) it seems like the qualities that people keep using to describe what NMJ likes about JYL are the same qualities that NMJ liked about Meng Yao (not JGY, MY pre-betrayal). I can’t imagine NMJ not having a ‘hold on, this is why it was easy and familiar’ moment and been left feeling off kilter until he manages to re-separate the two in his head so he doesn’t subconsciously expect betrayal 1/2

Meanwhile JGY is seeing Yanli doing what he used to do, but being loved for it where he was scorned and ignored (re- captain public dereliction of duty everyone went along with) and it just reaffirms for JGY that the scorn was about his birth, was about him personally.

(there are just different takes, here! You are a-okay having different ones than me 👌)

Oh, anon, you’ve just made this AU spicy.

So, so easily would underappreciated Jin Guangyao look from afar at sweet, demure, gentry born Jiang Yanli getting on swimmingly with his old flame, his Da-ge who does not trust him anymore, who will not let him stay by his side and just feel the most intense rage. And Nie Mingjue will talk about how she will braid up his hair or help with the disciples or bring him food when he is too wrapped up in his work to remember, and he will say it with such awestruck affection, like no one has ever done this for him before and Jin Guangyao would put on a nice, white smile and see red. Because he has done that. He was that. 

And the one that chose to stop it (in his eyes and more than a little biased and tilted perspective) was Nie Mingjue, who promptly went and got someone else and pretended that he never existed in the first place.

It’s not that he hates her as a person--though maybe he does? Who’s to say. It’s hard to separate such things, after all. Why do some people get the luxury of being soft?--but he hates that when he is at the Unclean Realm  the disciples eyes follow her adoringly, those same ones who’s judging eyes would follow him. She gets to be clean and pure and loved, doing less than he ever had [and whether that is true or not doesn’t really matter, in the end, because it’s how he feels] while he gets everything he ever wanted but everyone in Lanling hates him just the same as they ever did in Qinghe.

Because he is unworthy. Because he is unclean. Because he is unloveable. And so why should he try?

Oof. Oof. An extra nail in their relationship coffin. This is not a friendly!JGY!verse for sure and I love this 👀

[disastermages]

[ao3 link]

Every tawdry novel Nie Mingjue had ever read, or found in his chambers by someone’s doing, had told him that he was supposed to tear Jiang Yanli’s veil away the second he came to stand in front of her, but now, when it’s time for him to do it, all he can do is kneel down in front of her and fold it back gently.

“There you are.” He says softly, one hand resting on her leg while he stays on his knees in front of her.

“Here I am,” Jiang Yanli answers, red, painted lips smiling down at him softly as she places a hand onto his cheek, “I missed you.”

Nie Mingjue doesn’t hesitate in pressing a kiss to the hand at his cheek, his free hand curling around her arm. He’d tried to get away as quickly as he could, but every time he’d gotten close, he’d been cut off at the pass by one drunk sect leader or another, or some sect leader’s wife wanting to bless the marriage. 

In the end, he’d had to ask his brother to create a distraction.

“It would have been impolite to kick my guests out just to see you, Nie Furen.” Nie Mingjue teases and tests Jiang Yanli’s new title on his tongue, though it all falls apart when they both snort and she leans forward to press her forehead against his. It takes all the strength and patience in his body not to pull her down into his lap. “You didn’t get bored waiting for me, did you?”

It had felt criminal watching someone else lead her away to their wedding chamber while he’d had to stay and keep the guests entertained. He hadn’t even gotten to look at her during the ceremony, the veil had been in the way. 

Looking at her now, though, Nie Mingjue knows he would have been too distracted to pay attention. Jiang Yanli is a beauty when she’s dressed in regular clothes, but the red and gold makes her look ethereal. 

Taking her hand off his cheek, Nie Mingjue brushes kisses over it, knuckle by knuckle, finger by finger. 

“Only a little,” Jiang Yanli answers, her lips brushing over his temple, “mostly I was just…”

Nie Mingjue feels her smile shrink before he sees it, and it makes his heart and stomach clench in a way that’s too unfamiliar. “Mostly you were just what?” He keeps his voice quiet, gentle just for her as his hand slides up her leg and onto her hip, “You can tell me, I won’t be upset, Yanli.”

Slowly, Nie Mingjue rises from his place in front of her and sits beside her on the bed, both of his hands holding one of hers. He hopes it’s a good thing when she wraps her other hand around his. 

“Mostly I was just nervous, that’s all, we’ve- I’ve never done anything before, and I didn’t want-” Jiang Yanli stops herself again, and even in the dim candlelight and underneath her makeup, Nie Mingjue can see the blush creeping down her neck.

She’d told him once that she’d never been kissed until him.

Had he forgotten to tell her that he hadn’t had much more experience than she had?

“A-Li,” He calls her name gently, allowing himself to be the one to lift his hand to her cheek, his thumb stroking back and forth. He wants to pull her against him and keep her there until she’s ready to look at him again, but he doesn’t, instead, he tucks her head underneath his chin before he speaks again, “A-Li, we don’t have to do anything you aren’t ready for, we can just sleep if that’s what you want.”

He wouldn’t take anything she wasn’t prepared to give, he’d already made that decision long ago.

“No.” Jiang Yanli says quickly, shaking her head, but still blushing, “I want this… I want you, I just don’t want this to be bad for you.” That feeling wrapped around his heart and filling his stomach subsides almost immediately, a smile spreading across his face before he can think to stop it. 

“It won’t be bad, not for me, and hopefully not for you.” Nie Mingjue says, leaving no room for argument as he tilts her chin up to look at him, his thumb smudging her lip stain.

Jiang Yanli’s hand wraps around his wrist now, though she doesn’t lean into his touch yet, “How can you be so sure?”

“Because it’s you, because it’s me.” Nie Mingjue says, his grin turning confident as the smile comes back to Jiang Yanli’s face.

“Because it’s us.” Jiang Yanli finishes, finally leaning into Nie Mingjue’s hand. Nie Mingjue doesn’t stop himself from kissing her properly now, his hands finding her waist while hers cling to his shoulders. He lets her move when she wants to, taking his hands away only to drop them back to where they’d been when she settles into his lap, heat flooding his stomach. 

He wants to warn her, to pull away and tell her what she’s already doing to him, but when he tries, her teeth catch his bottom lip and pull a noise out of him that he’s never heard before. “You’re sure you want this?” Nie Mingjue asks breathlessly when he finally does manage to pull away just far enough to look up into her eyes. How had he not noticed how dark they’d gotten?

Jiang Yanli leans forward and presses a kiss to his nose now, her hands leaving his shoulders and combing through his hair, it’s a battle to keep his eyes open through it. “I’m sure.” Jiang Yanli says, her fingers deft in the way they free his hair from the ornaments and braids keeping it in place. She makes to set them down gently, but Nie Mingjue takes them and tosses them off to the side before he reaches up to do the same for her. 

“Have you been practicing?” He teases, fussing with the guan that seemed to be woven into her hair by someone with something against him. She reaches up to help him, but he bats her hands away.

“I like you with your hair down, is that so bad?” Jiang Yanli chuckles and Nie Mingjue feels a shiver go down his back as he pulls the guan and then a hairpin loose, her laughter is beautiful, a soft sound that he’d only allowed to stop his heart for just a handful of moments before she’d been his. If she liked him with his hair down, he would let her see it as often as she wanted.

Her own hair falls down one shoulder like a dark curtain once he’s finished, his lips parting as he looks up at her. “Will you let me braid it for you tomorrow morning?” He asks before he can stop himself. Color spreads across his cheeks, but Jiang Yanli only smiles and nods before she kisses him again, quicker this time than any time before. 

If she let him have his way, he would braid it for her every morning. 

Slowly, reverently, Nie Mingjue combs his fingers through Jiang Yanli’s hair, up and up until he can set his hand on the back of her neck and nudge her down for another kiss. That same heat from before fills his belly again as he runs his tongue over her bottom lip, undoubtedly smearing her lip stain even more than he already had. “Yanli,” Nie Mingjue says, letting his hand slide over the belt tying her robes together, all it would take was a single pull, but Nie Mingjue wants to take his time with it, “stand up, alright?”

For a second, Jiang Yanli only blinks at him, confusion passing over her face even as she stands, her hair falling down her back now, instead of over her shoulders. He stands with her, crowding in close and brushing one last kiss to her forehead before he pushes the sheer over robe down her shoulders and then onto the floor. When he looks at Jiang Yanli again, he sees understanding replace the confusion as her blush returns.

“If you don’t want it, or you change your mind at all while we’re doing this, tell me and I’ll stop.” Nie Mingjue says, his hand resting on the knot at her belt, but not pulling. He won’t untie it until he knows she understands.

“I will.” Jiang Yanli promises, and then she’s grabbing his hand and guiding it to pull the knot free. She’s still blushing, Nie Mingjue can’t help but think of it as cute, even as he undresses her slowly, layer by layer, until she’s standing naked before him. The under robe and the trousers she’d been wearing are still hanging in his hands while he stares at her, eyes dragging up and down.

If Jiang Yanli is a beauty in the clothes she wore every day, and ethereal in her wedding clothes, then she may as well have all the beauty of a goddess when she wears nothing at all.

“A-Li,” Nie Mingjue breathes, letting the last of her clothes fall out of his hands, “I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you.” It’s the truth, he wouldn’t tell her anything but the truth, now or ever. She doesn’t look away from him until he says that, her mouth opening and closing, before she covers her face with her hands, leaving every other inch of herself in his view.

“Mingjue,” Jiang Yanli sighs, her voice muffled by her hands, “you can’t possibly say things like that and expect that I’ll still be able to look into your eyes.”

“Can’t I?” Nie Mingjue asks, wrapping one arm around her to pull her against him, her skin soft underneath his rough hand. The other hand reaches up and pulls not very hard at one of her wrists, wanting nothing more than for her to allow herself to be seen by him.

“Not while you’re still dressed.” Jiang Yanli says, finally allowing him to pull her hands away from her face. It isn’t until he glances down at himself that he even notices that he’s still dressed in his wedding clothes, but he doesn’t miss the ghost of a grin on Jiang Yanli’s face.

“Should I help Sect Leader Nie undress? He was so kind to help me.” Jiang Yanli says finally, when he only manages to gawk at her face instead of doing something useful.

“My wife is already so good to me.” Nie Mingjue finally says, taking his hands off of her reluctantly.

Jiang Yanli undresses him just the same he’d done for her, but she interrupts herself by littering kisses over his chest and shoulders with each layer, stopping completely whenever he leans down to ask for another kiss at his lips. All too suddenly, there’s not a stitch of clothing left between them, and they’re left pressed against each other, with Jiang Yanli’s hands pressing against the few scars on his chest and with his hands framing Jiang Yanli’s face while they kiss, softly and urgently all at once. Her tongue sweeps across his bottom lip and he opens readily to welcome her into his mouth.

“Mingjue,” Jiang Yanli calls quietly, her fingers curling possessively over his shoulders, “won’t you take me to bed?” Nie Mingjue wants those fingers scratching lines down his back.

“Anything my wife asks me for, she’ll have.” Nie Mingjue answers seriously before he picks her up easily, he wouldn’t let Jiang Yanli walk to their wedding bed tonight.

He waits until she’s comfortable and still underneath him to wave a hand to put all the candles out at once, but she stops him, reaching up and catching his arm. “Please don’t, A-Jue, I want to see you.”

Hearing it nearly stops his heart, his eyes growing owlishly wide. He’d wanted to see her, too, he’d wanted to see the glow of her skin underneath him while he tried his hardest to make her feel good. Knowing that she’d wanted to see him just as badly soothed some ruffled part of him down. “A-Li,” Nie Mingjue smiles, and his heart aches for her, even as he leans forward and kisses her, pressing their bodies together once again.

It only lasts for a moment, and then he’s kissing down her chin, her throat, over her breasts and down her stomach, until he feels those soft, dark curls brushing against his skin. “Tell me whether or not you like this,” Nie Mingjue says almost too seriously. 

Jiang Yanli’s thighs are soft in his hands as Nie Mingjue situates them over his shoulders and settles himself on his belly between them, those dark curls already brushing against his lips. It was something he’d only read about, but the girls in the books, even the purely instructional ones, had seemed to enjoy this, and he wanted Jiang Yanli to enjoy herself with him.

His first lick is entirely exploratory, the tip of his tongue bumping against Jiang Yanli’s clit almost clumsily a few more times, but her legs twitch at his shoulders and he looks up at her quickly. “Good? Bad?” There were other things they could try if she didn’t like it, there would always be other things.

Jiang Yanli doesn’t answer right away, she seems to be weighing the words before they even come out, though her hand stretches out and finds Nie Mingjue’s hair, “It’s different,” She finally says, beginning to card her fingers through his hair, “but it isn’t bad.”

“Do you want me to keep going, or do you want me to stop?” Nie Mingjue asks, not even bothering to stop himself from leaning into her hand.

Smiling, Jiang Yanli runs her thumb over Nie Mingjue’s cheek, “I’d like it if you kept going, but you don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

Nie Mingjue doesn’t answer, not verbally, instead he turns his face against her palm and kisses it quickly before he sinks down between Jiang Yanli’s legs again, his tongue licking over her with more purpose now.

Her hand in his hair goes from stroking gently to gripping him tighter and tighter and even pulling the longer he has his mouth on her. At one point, Jiang Yanli had tried to pull her hand away apologetically, but Nie Mingjue had stopped her, pulling her back and sucking harder on her clit. 

That had pulled noises out of Jiang Yanli’s throat that Nie Mingjue could only chase after now, his cock hard and aching between his legs. How many times had he wrapped his hand around himself and thought about this without having any idea how she’d taste on his tongue? How many times had he thought of her and turned bright red with embarrassment and shame right after?

He wouldn’t burn with shame after this, though, never with her. 

He must make some sort of noise because she stops him, both of her hands finding him. “Mingjue,” Jiang Yanli gasps, her eyes only half open, and she looks beautiful, “Mingjue, let me make you feel good too.” She sits up as she says it, pulling his hand off his cock and using it to try and pull him on top of herself again. He goes like a man in a trance.

He can’t help the pained noise that climbs out of his throat as he’s taken into her hand, her thumb stroking over the head of his cock while the rest of her fingers brush over him experimentally, as if she were trying to see what kind of noises he might make for her. “Yanli, I’m not going to- I won’t last if you do that.” Getting the words out to stop her is a challenge that he’s never known before, his cock twitching and aching in her hand. “Please,” He begs her for mercy, his eyes closing and his forehead coming to rest against hers.

Jiang Yanli kisses him chastely as she guides him inside of herself, a noise escaping the both of them at the same time. “You feel so nice.” Jiang Yanli gasps as Nie Mingjue sinks deeper inside of her still, her legs tighten around his hips and her nails are digging into his shoulders now. 

“I want you to feel good, A-Li.” Nie Mingjue groans, the heat of her distracting enough to keep him from moving for a burning few seconds. He only starts to move when he thinks they can both handle it, noises still pouring out of them while he does it.

“But do you feel good, A-Jue?” Jiang Yanli asks, interrupting herself twice with moans that bubble to the surface faster than she can stop them.

She clenches around him, either intentionally or unintentionally, and makes Nie Mingjue’s brain short circuit, his eyes squeezing shut as he buries his face into her shoulder. “Fuck, yes.” He groans, his thrusts getting rougher. “Jiang Yanli, you make me feel so good.” Nie Mingjue pants and snaps his hips hard into hers, making her cry out, her legs tightening around him.

Jiang Yanli clenches around him, coming and clinging tighter and tighter to him while her nails rake down his back, taking Nie Mingjue right along with her.

Nie Mingjue is still buried deep inside of her as he comes, his grip tightening and then loosening. He doesn’t want to bruise her. 

He rolls off of her to keep himself from crushing her as he pulls out, but gathers her into his arms and holds her against his chest just as quickly. She comes willingly, wrapping her arms around his neck and hiding her face in his chest.

They need to clean up, Nie Mingjue knows that, but the thought of moving, the thought of letting go of her for even a moment, are the worst thoughts he thinks he’s ever had.

“Are you alright?” He asks instead, stroking her hair back even though he can’t see her face.

It takes a long few moments for Jiang Yanli to answer, her eyes looking hazy when she comes away from where she’d hidden her face against him, her hand fumbling to find his. “No one told me how nice it would feel.” Jiang Yanli says, brushing away Nie Mingjue’s worry before it had had time to fully take root, a half sighed laugh leaving him.

Bringing the back of her hand to his lips, Nie Mingjue doesn’t try to hide his smile, “I want you to feel that good, or better, every time we do that, A-Li.” He feels heat spread across his own face as he says it, but he won’t take it back, he meant it. 

“My husband is too kind to me.” Jiang Yanli says, leaning forward and brushing a kiss over his fingertips.

“Your husband wants his wife to be happy with him.”

“She is.” Jiang Yanli says confidently, leaning the whole of her weight against him, “Your wife is happier than her husband will ever know.”

Nie Mingjue swears he sees stars in her eyes, but he’s helpless to do anything but stare into them until Jiang Yanli falls asleep against his chest.

He doesn’t let go of her, even as he pulls the blankets over them and lies flat underneath her.

[greenwitching]

Jiang Yanli can’t help the sniffle that comes as she drags the wet cloth over Nie Mingjue’s cheek and down his neck, her other hand holding onto his much larger one, afraid to let go for even a moment. How could this have happened? It was only supposed to be a simple nighthunt, Nie Mingjue had even taken her hand in his and promised her that he’d be home before dawn.

Dropping the cloth back into the bowl at her side, Jiang Yanli lets her hand fall down to Nie Mingjue’s chest, relieved when she feels the strong, steady beat against her palm. She should know that it would take far more than this to take her husband from her, but he’d still been bloody when they brought him home. Not even the strongest Nie disciples had been able to keep her away from his bedside while the healers dressed the worst of his wounds, leaving her to tend to the smaller ones after they were done.

“See what trouble you get into when I’m not with you?” Jiang Yanli scolds lightly, though she’s sure he can’t hear her in his sleep. Slowly she rises from where she’d been sitting and reaches for his hair ornaments, unclasping them and setting them aside in the way she’d become accustomed to since their wedding. “This should be more comfortable.” She’d said that on their wedding night too, reaching to start unclasping the clips that held his braids in place.

He’d been worried about hurting her, that she was small and he was not, he’d said it as she worked the intricate braids loose with her fingers, catching both of her hands and raising them to his lips as he promised he wouldn’t ever take anything she wasn’t ready to offer. She’d smiled at him then, and she smiles at him now, she’d told him she’d loved him then, and she’d tell him she loved him now, if only he were awake.

She runs her fingers through his hair again, now free from his braids and fanning out on the pillow underneath him. Later, after he’d woken up, she’d tease him about how cute he looked, but for now, she reaches for his comb and traces the designs on it with her fingers for a moment before setting about on her next task.

Every knot and tangle from the fight is combed out, starting at the bottom and working her way up to keep the comb from accidentally pulling and causing him more pain, it’s only when she’s halfway through with a middle section that Nie Mingjue begins to stir.

“A-Li?” He calls out to her, his voice raspy and his eyes screwed shut for a moment longer before he tries to open them.

“I’m here.” Jiang Yanli answers, managing to smile just a little as she feels her heart squeeze in her chest. Her smile drops quickly as he tries to sit up and her hands push back on his shoulders, shaking her head and trying to push him back down onto the bed.

He could stop her if he truly wanted to, but he only hesitates for a moment before he lets her lay him back down. “You need to stay put for a few days, A-Sang promised he would look after things.” Jiang Yanli says, her hands folding into her lap as she sits back down next to him.

“Is that the advice of my healers or my wife?” Nie Mingjue asks, a worn smile coming onto his face as he reaches for her hand, and Jiang Yanli gives it to him, her fingers curling between his.

“My husband should have been more careful.” Jiang Yanli says, refusing to answer the question, holding onto his hand with both of hers now as she raises his knuckles to her lips. There’s a touch of mischief to her smile now, an expression that Nie Mingjue had learned to watch for and treasure all at the same time, another thing about her that made his stomach do funny things.

Nie Mingjue reaches forward because he can’t stop himself, tucking a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear with his free hand and letting it linger on her cheek before he tugs her forward gently. Jiang Yanli follows him easily, making sure she isn’t touching or laying down on any of his injuries before she allows herself to relax next to him, looking up just as he leans down to press their foreheads together.

“I came home before dawn.” Nie Mingjue teases, eyes flicking towards the pale morning light coming through the window behind them.

Jiang Yanli’s eyes widen for a moment, a half hearted scolding on her tongue before it dissolves into a laugh, her husband had kept his promise.

[guqin-and-flute]

I just put up a snipped of a juelie fic this whole nonsense has me writing and i put up the little part that WASNT the 5k smut i've got going for them (p.s. it is gentle and mild and he's teared up like 3 times so far from pure love) and i jus wanna. say. I have so many feelings for this pairing. nmj is such a crier, he's an emotional boy who hasnt felt tender love for so long as he hasn't let nhs love on him proper since he became sect leader and i cOULD YELL FOR DAYS. i feel incoherent bout it

OH MYG OD

PLEASE

I NEED TO SEE, HE IS SO TENDER