#background nieyao
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3cosmicfrogs · 11 months ago
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"and doesn't he look pretty?"
from a lovely prompt by my darlingest dearest mutual @frodo-of-the-nine-fingers.
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greenandhazy · 1 year ago
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something I've been musing over lately is Meng Yao and Lan Xichen having completely opposing needs re: marriage (particularly in a modern AU) and how their relationship with Nie Mingjue helps them work through it.
like, Lan Xichen growing up very very aware of the fact that his parents should not have been married, didn't make each other happy, refused to divorce Because of the Kids(/traditional values!!) which are bad reasons. so he knows from a very young age that he's not going to marry. he's going to fall in love with his whole heart, he's going to be loyal and generous, and if at any point the relationship starts to turn unhealthy, if he stops making his partner(s) happy, he is going to let them go.
annnnd then Meng Yao growing up has the exact opposite experience. painfully aware of how badly things can go when you don't have concrete reassurances to fall back on, knowing that someone can say all the right things, make all the promises in the world, and that doesn't mean jack shit if they're not willing to back them up with something real. it's fine in the early stages, but after a while he starts to second-guess himself, wondering if "I would let you go" might not have shades of "I don't care enough to hold on to you."
but then! up pops Nie Mingjue! who has some parental issues of his own, don't get him wrong, but he had a front-row seat to both of his dad's happy marriages, and he's perfectly content with the idea that 1) you can love someone without being obsessive over them, in life or in death, 2) it's okay to move on if that's what life has in store for you, 3) marriage is nice! domesticity and commitment are nice things to have when it's with someone you love and trust.
so NieYao get married, and Lan Xichen remains their boyfriend/partner, and it takes some getting used to but it soothes them all a bit. from LXC's point of view, he trusts that NMJ is a little more level-headed about relationships, more willing to see the bad and the good instead of getting obsessive, and he's happy that MY feels more stable, that he'll have something even if they don't work out. from MY's point of view, he's got that proof that NMJ is willing to commit to him (and lbr their relationship has been shaky at times too, so that's comforting for its own sake). and also he knows that NieLan have a much longer history so that's some reassuring data that LXC isn't going to disappear on them out of the blue. NMJ likes making both of them just a little less stressed out... and now he has a good excuse to foist some of his domestic paperwork on Meng Yao, which is NOT him being lazy. (ok it's like 10% his own laziness, 60% Meng Yao likes doing paperwork, 30% he wears his Work Glasses and breaks out the color-coding highlighters/post-it notes and it's really cute.)
and Nie Huaisang gets to fuss over a wedding. win-win-win-win.
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bahoreal · 2 months ago
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fuckkkk meee i forgot that in the book nmj overhears jgy privately telling lxc how upset he is that nmj will never acknowledge him and called him the son of a whore and wonders if that's all nmj will ever see him as and that's what made him qi deviate and die. like yes jgy had been poisoning him but i dont think that conversation was meant for his ears, and if any of it wasnt true then there might have been some way for them to reconcile
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ionshi-teiru · 1 year ago
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shallow waters for fishboyfriend loving hours
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naysaltysalmon · 1 year ago
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I can't remember the last time I posted art on Tumblr. Anyway, here are my drawings for the 3zun 3-day weekend prompts~! 💚💙💛
Day 1: Nie Mingjue — Pastels // Insecure // there was only one bed Day 2: Lan Xichen — Earth tones // Curious // arranged marriage Day 3: Jin Guangyao — Black/white // Grateful // immortality
And then I did a piece with all of 3zun as a bonus. (I hardly do drawings with more than one character, let alone three.) The poses are referenced from this post!
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wishthefish · 3 months ago
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A laptop background for all my Nieyao loving friends 💚💛
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lgbtlunaverse · 8 months ago
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3zun data analysis
I was wondering how much the different 2-out-of-3zun ship fics were actually focused specifically on them, rather than having them feature as side pairings, so I did a little mini-experiment. Beginning by searching for otp:true in each tag
(This doesn't give you the real number of fics were the pairing is the main focus, for the record. The other tagged ships might've been a side pairing, and the one we're filtering for the main one, and otp:true also filters out platonic relationships. So, for example, a nielan fic that has the nie brothers tagged as a platonic bond will also be filtered out. But since it does that for all ships you can still get a good idea how likely each one of them is to be the center in their fics)
My hypothesis was that Nielan would be the least likely, as they're frequently tagged as a side pairing in wangxian focused fics, with xiyao and nieyao having comparable results.
Nielan, as I type this, have 2154 works, of which only 627 have only nielan tagged. That is 29% of all nielan fics.
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Next up is xiyao, who have 4534 works, of which 2195 only have xiyao tagged, a significanly higher 48%
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And lastly nieyao, who have the least works in total with 1749, but have 683 works only tagged nieyao, more than nielan despite having less fics overall. Ending up at 39% of all nieyao fics
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So I was right about nielan being lower, but turned out to be wrong in my hypothesis that nieyao and xiyao would end up with comparable results!
One possible factor is that nieyao, being a smaller ship, is more affected by those big collection-type fics that have a dozen pairings tagged for every chapter, as well as 3zun fics that have the individual pairings tagged. (Which we'll get to later!!)
Also, Huaisang - typical of him - butts into nieyao more. 5% of nieyao fics have the Nie brothers tagged platonically, and almost exactly the same number are tagged sangyao. Compare that to lan xichen's much more reserved little brother who really doesn't want to be a part of this, as only 3% of xiyao fics are tagged with the twin jades, and zhanyao... isn't much of a thing.
I'd anticipated both of these, but I'd also expected that xiyao, being a bigger ship, would be a less controversial background pairing for wangxian, who - let's be real - are the main players within the mdzs fic space so they massively impact the numbers. I know xiyao are certainly not without controversy (god no) and the go-to side pairings are xicheng and xuanli instead but like... compared to nieyao, surely they're the normie pick? And, well, 25% of xiyao fics are tagged wangxian compared to only 20% of nieyao fics so that is somewhat true, but not as much as I'd thought. (For comparison, 43% of nielan fics are tagged wangxian)
Now let's look at 3zun overall. Of the 1127 3zun fics, 277 are exclusively tagged 3zun. That's only 25%
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But that doesn't feel right. After all, a lot of 3zun fics also tag the individual pairings. And excluding them like we did with the 2-out-of-3zun ships feels wrong. You'd categorize a fic tagged with both nieyao and 3zun as a 3zun fic, wouldn't you?
So I manually excluded each non 2-out-of-3zun pair. This took a bit, but you end up with 538 3zun fics which are either not tagged with any side pairing, or only tagged with a ship already contained in 3zun. That is 48% of all 3zun fics, similar to xiyao.
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So there you have it! Xiyao is the most independent of the subfandoms, having almost half of its works centered solely around xiyao (and even more primarily focused on xiyao. As I said, otp:true also filters out works that still focus on xiyao but have other background relationships) with the overall 3zun fandom having a similar focus, followed by nieyao, and then nielan.
edit: this has a part 2 now
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mostlikelytofangirl · 2 months ago
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Fic Writer Q&A
Got tagged by @jgydidnothingwrong :D
How many wips do you have currently?
Oooooh boy, way too many ^^;. Gonna list them in order from most to least likely to see the light of day orz
Ruoyao fake dating sugar daddy AU - currently ongoing
Omegaverse modern sangcheng - currently ongoing
Nieyao reconnecting by taking care of drunk LXC - for nieyao week
Xiyao endgame Mamma mia AU - planned for when the sc one ends
MY helping xusang by distracting WRH after accidentally getting betrothed to WX - I just think it's hilarious
Modern chengyao giving JL a puppy - a whole chapter long already
WRH trapped in a loop until he convices MY not to kill him - two whole chapters long already
A weird ass modern chengyao shared custody that can either be sangcheng&3zun or actual chengyao endgame - structure done and a few chapters
JZX is Madam Jin's bastard - one long chapter almost done
JGY as surrogate for xuanli - half chapter done
Post-nieyao revenge dating sangyao - got two chapters done
I have ideas for other fics too, but those don't have a sole word written yet, and this list is long enough lol
Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?
Everyone has their own reasons why they are still WIPs :'). But rn the omegaverse shangcheng one bc it's almost done but my brain is fixated on the ruoyao one bc it's HUGE, so it won't focus on the other one and let me finish it already.
What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?
It looks like me either forcing myself to work on something and finding my mojo along the way so I actually get a good chunk done... or opening yet another new file to pour down all my sudden ideas and feels for a new WIP :P
Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?
Not really. I used to, but unless the mood of a song matches the story perfectly, I normally don't bother anymore or just put background jazz to cancel outside noises. If I'm very into a song at that moment, then I just play it and somehow my brain will manage to make it match what I'm writing XD
Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?
Normally I just roll with it. I have a general idea of where is it going and how I want it to go and let Jesus take the wheel :'D. Only when I have WAY too many ideas for a fic that is going to be LONG I get organized with a proper structure and timeline, like the ruoyao one and the possibly two endings one.
I tag @wishthefish, @thebiscuiteternal and @hereticcryptid
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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year ago
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hi hi hope youre doing well!! i was wondering if you had any good recs for fics that explore jin guangyao and su minshans relationship? platonic or romantic idm i just wanna read more fics about their dynamic!! no worries if not, you just seem like youd know some good fics for them lol (compliment)
anon you have come to the right clown with this request, let me throw some stuff at you:
a painting missing strokes, a song missing notes by occasional_boy_reporter is a cql post-canon xiyao fix-it fic that includes probably my favourite brand of suyao, which is one-sided, unrequited, but nevertheless not something minshan makes jgy's problem to manage. he might be eaten up with envy on the inside, but his ride-or-die loyalty to jgy overcomes everything. anyway, i am sad to say the fic is incomplete, but it is still such a beautiful read, and sms's role in it really can't be overstated! i also really like how the writer handles lxc and sms's dynamic!
favor by venndaai is a hunger games AU which primarily focuses on a romance between meng yao and lan xichen in the games, but also features background nieyao and very minor background nielan--which, if you know anything about me and my preferences, is so high up there on my list of NOTPs as to be in the stratosphere, so for me to not only read and finish this fic, but turn around and recommend it to other people as often as i do.... idk if it says something, exactly, other than i think it's REALLY FUCKING GOOD! minshan's role in this one is very minor in contrast to what you'll see above, but it is nevertheless an extremely important role that, imo, closely mirrors sms and jgy's canon dynamic in spirit, if not in function. just be prepared for things to go very dark. i cried at the end.
sainted, untainted by gloriousmonsters is a suyao oneshot that veers very closely towards dubcon territory, though the kink in question is one that they do negotiate in advance. things just... happen... in the thick of it, and they struggle, but the whole scene from start to finish remains consensual. what i love about it isn't even the sex, though that is very steamy and intimate dgmw. it's that everything about this scene, from start to finish, is also an examination of trust and vulnerability, and i think if there's anyone in the canon material jgy would be willing to give up his dearly bought power and control to--other than lan xichen--it's going to be su she.
those are the ones that immediately leap out at me! beyond that, here's a shameless plug for my post-canon xiyao fix-it WIP glorious, which only has one chapter up atm, but it is all jgy and sms. their dynamic is going to be as important as the romantic xiyao in subsequent chapters so 👉👉 watch this space etc.
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rhysiana · 2 years ago
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Fics I Didn't Write: Nieyao MMA AU
When I was looking through my document of beginnings that didn't turn into anything long enough for their own separate document yesterday, I also found this one!
Basic premise:
Meng Yao as a medical massage therapist (his mother had worked in a much different part of the massage industry, but he's damned if he's going to let everything she taught him go to waste)
Nie Mingjue as an MMA fighter who is probably about to retire (which is fine because their financial situation is much more stable now than it was when he started and he can fall back on running the family martial arts studio the way he wanted to from the beginning)
This fic 100% started because I wanted an excuse for NMJ to go on a rant about how incredibly stupid it is that the MMA world so fetishizes (Brazilian) jiu jitsu "lineage" and how it's increasingly a lie to even call it mixed martial arts anymore, because if you come from a background outside the approximately four styles a white American man has ever heard of, interviewers act like you are extremely exotic and also probably unqualified. I didn't get to that part, but I have played it out a few times in my mind. It's very satisfying. Both Meng Yao and I found it very attractive.
Opening scene:
Meng Yao set his salad out on the small table in the break room and pulled up the file for his next patient on his tablet. The Chinese name was promising, but then he scrolled down and saw “MMA fighter” listed under profession and sighed internally. Meng Yao was good at his job and he knew it, but he also knew what he looked like, and it always made him seethe when some of their more… stereotypically masculine sports medicine referrals asked for a different therapist before he even got started. Well, at least this Nie Mingjue was a referral from Wen Qing. He’d hope for the best.
~*~*~
Sure enough, as soon as Meng Yao introduced himself, he caught the guy’s skeptical once-over. He served up his most polite customer service smile and gestured him into the treatment room, privately vowing to wreck him one muscle group at a time in the most professional and therapeutic way possible.
Resolutely, he turned his attention to patient evaluation. Recovering from ligament repair surgery on his left shoulder, the file said, and he could see it in the way Nie Mingjue still held that arm too still, like he’d gotten used to it being in a brace. The shoulder rode a bit higher on that side as well. His mind started building his treatment plan before Nie Mingjue even turned around to face him again, hovering uncertainly next to the table.
“Should I…” he started, gesturing vaguely at his clothes.
Meng Yao allowed himself a very small smile and shook his head. “I’d like to evaluate you moving naturally for the moment, and for you to tell me your goals for treatment.” He ruthlessly quashed his desire to laugh as the enormous man who could clearly break him like a twig visibly relaxed. “Walk to that wall for me and then back.”
“Oh, sure.”
Meng Yao watched his back as he walked, the movements of the muscles under his shirt powerful but uneven, very much those of a person used to moving confidently and coming up against an unexpected obstacle again and again. Meng Yao thought he must actually be rather elegant when he was well, albeit in a rather large way, and felt unexpected sympathy. He certainly knew the frustration of a lingering injury in a body that had previously been trained into painstaking obedience.
“How did it happen?” he asked as Nie Mingjue reached the far wall and turned back.
“Dislocation during an arm bar.”
Meng Yao frowned, eyes trained on Nie Mingjue’s shoulders.
“It’s a move where—”
“I know what an arm bar is, thank you,” Meng Yao said, more tartly than he intended. Perhaps he should have had more caffeine with his lunch. When he glanced up, though, Nie Mingjue was looking at him with a pleased sort of surprise. He mentally shook himself and went on briskly, “I’m just not used to seeing this injury in someone with so much muscle mass in their shoulders.”
“Oh.” Nie Mingjue shrugged, still mostly with just his right side. “The orthopedist said it’s because I’m too tall. If your limbs are long, there’s too much room for torque. Leverage, you know.”
Meng Yao nodded. “I see. May I touch you?”
Nie Mingjue offered a wry smile. “Not much point in being here if you don’t, is there?”
Meng Yao later, looking up the fight where the dislocation happened for entirely professional reasons and then ending up in a YT spiral: "I refuse to let this awaken anything in me." (Liar)
Said video spiral is also when he finds videos of NHS doing fan forms, because I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass, I assure you.
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jingyi-ma-boi · 13 days ago
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Sitting down to expand my fierce corpse!NMJ AU and turn it into an actual fic for nieyao week with some Hexperos on the background while there's a raging thunderstorm going on feels like the epitome of gothic culture. Pre-teen me would be amazed that this is the kind of thing that I do at 23
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whocalledhimannux · 1 month ago
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I was chatting with some friends in the MDZS/Untamed fandom and got to Explaining all of my (very correct) opinions about my favorite QT characters and... how have I just now realized how many great similarities there are between NieYao and Relius/Teleus?
bastard whose struggle for recognition leads him to spy and otherwise do the Unsavory work of running a kingdom
+ signature item of clothing that symbolizes his respected position (hat/cape)
+ plot-significant injuries, including specifically hand/arm trauma
tall, grumpy soldier who is SERIOUSLY too stubborn and honorable for his own good, like he is harming himself by doing so
+ with a secret soft side (crying/poetry)
complicated on again/off again relationship
is it possible I... have a type? no definitely not. the fact that my other favorite ship is also a tall, stubborn, too-honest soldier and a prickly but extremely clever and efficient young man with a chip on his shoulder due to a disadvantaged background who is frustrated by the soldier's naive view of power imbalances in society is just a COMPLETE COINCIDENCE.
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fincalinde · 2 years ago
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JGY! (getting in ahead of the crowd)
Ah, but of course. I have only had 3 asks for this meme so I can only assume people are sick of my whinging, so it's not like you beat the rush.
a song that reminds me of them
I'm trying to think of songs that I haven't already strip mined for fic titles and not coming up with much. So maybe this can just be a recommendation for PHILDEL, who is one of my favourite artists. A lot of her work has serious Xiyao vibes, and off the top of my head the one that might be the most JGY on his own is Glorious.
There's a place I go A place I always stand alone And need no witness to my throne Here I say my piece And have no need to be believed The bridge I built will carry me Beyond the creatures of your sea
and
Here I win my day I make my kill upon the grave And need no hero to be saved Here the light still shines Despite the odds and all the time Despite the gods and their design
—like, omg
what they smell like
He's obviously fastidious because he can't ever afford not to be, but I'd probably stage it like this:
Before his mother dies - can never get rid of the cheap sickly smell of the brothel incenses.
After his mother dies - not around much if any incense and must be as respectable as possible, smells of clean cloth and silk and whatever hair oil he can afford. He is very careful about hair oil, he absolutely must not appear to be cheap or tacky.
When he's serving the Nie - similar to the above, probably keeps making little adjustments every time he's bullied about something in a fruitless attempt to mitigate all the judgement and make himself respectable.
When he's serving the Jin - see above but so much worse.
When he's serving the Wen - very careful at first but begins to adjust to having some form of power and resource that protects him from direct abuse. Spends enough time with WRH that he smells like the same incenses WRH prefers, and his scented hair oil and the like is carefully chosen to be consistent with whatever is fashionable amongst the Wen and approved of by WRH.
When he's legitimised - see above but dialled up. He has to walk a fine line between being the same as the other Jin without coming across as vulgarly ambitious. In fic a time or two I've mentioned that he smells of olibanum incense, which I chose as something that would have been imported at great expense and seemed characteristic of the Jin. He needs to demonstrate his status and his wealth, but that said: I guarantee you that it's a typical fragrance that's used all over Golden Carp Tower, and not a scent that's considered a signature central Jin family fragrance. He wouldn't be so bold.
When he's chief cultivator - sticking with what he was doing before. He can never stop being careful.
Secret bonus scent: sandalwood because he spends so much time around LXC.
an otp
oh well let me think of course it's Xiyao. I don't think the text supports a reading where they're lovers, but I think it does support a reading where their intimate friendship includes romantic feelings and the potential for a romantic and presumably also sexual relationship. LXC is the only person who gets on the MS tier of the JGY harm pyramid. JGY is the only person who sees LXC's needs and attempts to meet them. Their relationship is a true meeting of the minds, and the secrets between them are either mutually agreed and healthy or the result of horrific external circumstances. I think I've summed it up before.
a notp
I already mentioned how repellent I find Nieyao in my NMJ response.
Honestly though, JGY with anyone but LXC is a no from me. I think his relationship with QS is sweet and tragic, but it's telling that he never once talks about loving her for who she is and how they are together. He insists he loved her and the forcefulness of that assertion makes it clear he's being sincere, but the emphasis is all on how he's grateful for the fact that she never made his background an issue. It reads to me like he loves how sweet and kind she is and how brave and loyal, but even that is not enough for a healthy and successful relationship. I'm not going to get into the incest thing as that would be a whole other post.
Based on this, I think if he didn't need a wife for social and political purposes he'd have been equally as happy to have her as a supportive friend and political ally. She is canonically not that bright, and he needs an intellectual equal for true partnership—and that's not even getting into the importance of him needing a partner who's capable of grappling with moral relativism.
favorite platonic/familial relationships
This might make @thatswhatsushesaid happy—I really like JGY's relationship with NHS before he's forced to take out NMJ and it all goes to hell. JGY deserves a didi he can dote on. NHS probably does not deserve another doting gege, but I'll allow it anyway.
I also love JGY and JL. The flashback to JGY giving JL Fairy is one of my favourite scenes, not just because it shows that JGY genuinely loves and cares for JL, but because it shows that JGY's unique background and struggles have equipped him to provide JL with comfort and support that no one else could offer.
I always assumed Jin Chan and his little mob of thugs have parents who are a political threat to JGY within the Jin, or how else would they have the guts to harass the heir who will one day rule over them? So there's a lot of layers here for JGY, who has to navigate a delicate political situation while trying to do what he can for JL. I just think it's a beautiful moment where JGY cannot do what I'm sure he wants to do and deal directly with the source of the abuse, and so he does what he can. He knows better than anyone else that sometimes you can't make the abuse stop; but it still matters if you can help someone bear it a little bit better.
a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with
I mean, how much time do you have? I have no patience for the ubiquitous bratty power bottom JGY bossing around 'service top' (vomit) LXC, and I also have no patience for the I think less ubiquitous now but still worth mentioning sadist dom JGY who fantasises about cutting lines into LXC. Those are probably the most common base types I've seen around, but the list, it goes on. I could write another few thousand words joylessly debunking what seems to get people off on AO3, but I really do spill enough ink already on highlighting how inconsistent these portrayals are with the JGY we see in canon.
I'm not saying every single word I personally write is blessed by the angels and incontrovertibly in line with the translated text of the novel, and obviously we are all here at the end of the day to have fun. But it does baffle me that this is so inescapable, because if you want those sorts of dynamics then there are so many other pairings out there to choose from.
the position they sleep in
This probably varies but he must be an extremely light sleeper and probably never sleeps with his back to the door.
a crossover au i’d love to see them in
Can I bring up my ATLA AU yet again ... yes, I am shameless. Or how about the theoretical X-Men AU I raised in the last post? The trouble is that this would have to be a setting where being a mutant is desirable and he has a weak mutation that he exploits to the maximum and perhaps later is able to strengthen.
my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn
Since THAI COVER JGY was already taken, I'll pivot and say I really love what he's wearing in his official artwork. Look at this man! He is elegant and wealthy and powerful and classy and a skilled diplomat and administrator and yet there remains an air of danger about him. Precise! Deadly! Polite! sorry i think i got possessed by lan xichen there for a moment
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eleanorfenyxwrites · 2 years ago
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Far From An Imposition - AO3
@wincestielfttfwin asked for some A-Yao feels: may I humbly offer you 10k of kind-of plotty smut with feelings? This is another pre-’All Dreams Were Worth Keeping’ NieYao smut oneshot, a direct follow-up to my other pre-fic NieYao smut oneshot in this universe, ‘Seems Like A Good Thing’. I just really like them fucking and being shit at communication while they do it, okay? 😂
-//-
“Meng Yao.”
Meng Yao, currently up to his elbows in other people’s bullshit problems, doesn’t bother looking up at Nie Mingjue looming in his doorway.
“Yes?”
“You know it’s 6, don’t you?”
“Rest assured, Mingjue, I always know what time it is.” Meng Yao’s reply is perhaps a bit too tart, but Nie Mingjue doesn’t seem fazed by it. Rather he steps into the office fully and shuts the door behind himself with a quiet click. The office is likely emptying out quickly enough on the other side of it that the extra layer of privacy isn’t strictly necessary, but Meng Yao doesn’t mind. He simply makes a note of it in the background of everything else running through his mind and dismisses it just as easily. Whatever the reason for it, it doesn’t matter right now -
“A-Yao,” Nie Mingjue says, low under the furious tacking of Meng Yao’s keyboard, and Meng Yao freezes. Entirely without his permission, his near-perfect memory replays the moment Nie Mingjue had called him that in the dark of a hotel room, the pair of them finally daring to cross a line Meng Yao had never thought he’d see himself cross. Nie Mingjue’s good at that, inviting him to see ways of doing things, possibilities for his life, that he wouldn’t have bothered to think of without him. Whether that’s necessarily a good thing remains to be seen.
His breath hitches in his chest in the moment before he returns to typing, though he does at least look up from the screen to meet Nie Mingjue’s eyes only to find him looking…concerned. Concerned? For him?
“Mingjue,” he acknowledges with audible hesitation – this is as much uncharted territory as that night (that week) at the hotel had been, and he hates being caught off guard no matter how many times Nie Mingjue does it.
“Whatever you’re working on can wait. It’s Friday.”
Meng Yao blinks and, despite his best intentions, fails to see the point of this argument.
“Yes, it’s Friday…that means two days of leaving things unfinished and an extra workload for Monday morning, which I’d rather avoid.”
“What are you working on that’s so time sensitive?” Nie Mingjue asks then with the beginnings of a glare creeping across his unfairly handsome face. Meng Yao can never tell if he loves or hates that Nie Mingjue is just as attractive when he’s pissed as he is when he’s happy or – as Meng Yao’s brain is still unhelpfully replaying for him in exquisite detail despite the last example of this having happened weeks ago now – completely blissed (read: fucked) out.
“There was a scheduling error in accounting and a report that was meant to be sent out two days ago hasn’t even been started. I would have worked on it earlier but there were other things I needed to wrap up first, and I understand that overdue work should take priority but -“
“A-Yao, I’m not trying to interrogate you,” Nie Mingjue interrupts. “I trust that you did everything in the best way you could and that I would’ve done it the same way if I’d known. You don’t have to defend yourself to me. I just wanted to know what it was – so you’re doing this report right now?”
Meng Yao has to blink a few times through the euphoria of being trusted to be competent. Just like that. No questions, no hesitation. Nie Mingjue trusts him, and Meng Yao still doesn’t quite know what to do with that.
“Yes, I started about half an hour ago. I expect it’ll take me another hour or two to sort through everything and get it all in place, and then I’ll have to spend some time double checking it all to make sure it’s correct, then I can…um..-“
Meng Yao trails off as Nie Mingjue’s expression sours further, definitely glaring now. “Literally none of this is in your job description,” Nie Mingjue frowns. “How did this end up with you?”
Meng Yao barely refrains from rolling his eyes sheerly out of self-preservation. The overwhelming number of things he does for this company that aren’t in his job description goes way beyond covering for the accounting department’s clerical fuck-ups, but he’s pretty sure if he says something to that effect his reputation amongst the others in the office will plummet even further when it makes them subject to Nie Mingjue’s irritation.
“I try my best to help solve any problem I can,” he demurs instead, but Nie Mingjue’s fierce expression doesn’t budge an inch.
“What do you have left to do today that is in your actual, normal job description in my office, not accounting or marketing or whoever else decided they need you this week?”
Meng Yao checks his mental list quickly, double checks it against the written list next to his computer, and says, “Nothing. Your schedule for next week is all in order, my inbox is cleared of everything urgent, I’ve returned all the necessary calls for the week, and the next project I’m expecting to need to handle won’t cross my desk until Wednesday at the earliest with the print delays in marketing for the rebranding needed before next month’s product launch expo.”
Nie Mingjue takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly with a shake of his head as if to clear it. “Yep. Good. You’ve done more than enough - send what you have so far back to accounting, tell them to fix their shit by Wednesday, and then come get dinner with me. We can talk about work if it’ll make you feel better about skipping out on time.”
Meng Yao stares first at Nie Mingjue and then at his monitors, one far too bright with a nearly-blank spreadsheet and the other sporting multiple open windows full of figures that he’s only just begun to make sense of, considering he doesn’t know much of anything about the intricacies of accounting yet.
“But-“
“I can buy you takeout to go home with if you don’t want to eat with me.”
“No, it’s not that! I just-“
“Do more than I would ever ask you to. Come on, A-Yao. I’m heading out, and I’m not leaving my office manager behind to do shit that isn’t even his job while I go home for the weekend. Send an email back to whoever it is that dumped this on you – use me as an excuse if you want, tell them you have to prioritize a project for me and they can sort out their own mistakes.”
God, what Meng Yao wouldn’t give to have that sort of easy authority. That unquestionable confidence in his own word having that much weight behind it. He doesn’t have it of course, and likely won’t for as long as he’s in this position, but for now he doesn’t have any qualms about borrowing Nie Mingjue’s with his explicit permission to do so.
Under the other man’s watchful eye he closes down everything but the spreadsheet and his inbox. He opens the email he’d received from accounting and attaches his meager beginnings to the message, along with a text body full of polite business-speak bullshit to the effect of what Nie Mingjue had told him to say. He doesn’t apologize, and he doesn’t offer to look it over again. It’s surprisingly heady to just wash his hands of the problem and tell the people responsible to actually take responsibility for their shit.
By the time he shuts the computer down Nie Mingjue’s frown has faded into something vaguely smug, and he stands up from where he’d sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk, his hands tucked into his pockets with his thumbs sticking out of the too-tight fabric. (Meng Yao knows from careful research that his ass looks absolutely indecent when he does that, and he thinks again of that week and how many times Nie Mingjue had let him fuck him with a sort of wistfulness that nearly knocks him breathless.)
“Do you want to go out somewhere for dinner or do you want to come to mine?” Nie Mingjue asks as they head for the elevator together through the dimmed office. He offers a nod and a smile to the cleaning staff they pass in the hall and Meng Yao wants to climb him like a fucking tree.
“I don’t want to impose.”
“Neither option is an imposition or else I wouldn’t have offered, A-Yao,” Nie Mingjue huffs, but he sounds a little amused at least. “Seriously. Just tell me where you want to go and we’ll go.”
Meng Yao very very quickly weighs the pros and cons of both choices against each other, and in the end it’s not even a competition. “Yours, then,” he says as nonchalantly as he can, like the deciding factor wasn’t the likelihood of getting Nie Mingjue in bed being so much higher in the man’s own house than if they go out.
“You got it.”
The elevator opens again then and they stride across the main lobby in step, both of them offering a nod to the evening security guard behind the desk. Nie Mingjue thankfully doesn’t live too far from the office, his house tucked away in one of the older neighborhoods in town, old enough to have weathered the corporatization of the city around it intact, at least for now. Meng Yao steps down out of Nie Mingjue’s SUV and tries not to be too obvious about glancing around the bit of the street he can see, but Nie Mingjue isn’t looking at him anyway.
“There you are, da-ge, what in the world took you so long?” Nie Huaisang calls from the front door and Meng Yao stiffens. He’d completely forgotten about Nie Huaisang’s existence, let alone his presence in the Nie house – they don’t really interact too much at work considering Meng Yao’s hectic schedule and Nie Huaisang’s aversion to anything resembling even a token effort at productivity, but that’s no excuse for Meng Yao to have forgotten he’d be here.
“I had to force Meng Yao to leave, it took some convincing,” Nie Mingjue snorts as he strides up the walk. “If you’re that hungry you should’ve just ordered something.”
“And miss out on your cooking? Not a chance,” Nie Huaisang sniffs. Meng Yao follows behind Nie Mingjue and tries not to think too hard about the man’s constant fussing over him to eat and take care of himself in the context of apparently doing the same to Nie Huaisang, albeit apparently a little less nicely than he does it for Meng Yao which is…something.
A Thing.
He’s not thinking about it.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Nie Mingjue tells him when they step over the threshold. As if this isn’t one of the more surreal moments of Meng Yao’s life; as if this is a completely normal Friday evening; as if they do this.
He comforts himself at least with the knowledge that Nie Huaisang seems just as uncomfortable with his unexpected presence, eyes darting around like he’s nervous Meng Yao is going to ask him to do something work-related out of hours and in his own house.
“So. Um. Hi,” Nie Huaisang eventually titters.
“Hello Huaisang,” he replies politely, because if he doesn’t retain the basic social skills Meng Shi drilled into him as a boy then he has nothing left in this life at all. “I apologize for interrupting your evening, I hope you won’t mind.”
“No no no, not at all, not at all. Da-ge can invite whoever he wants over, of course-”
“It’s just dinner, A-Sang,” Nie Mingjue calls from somewhere in the depths of the house – most likely the kitchen, seeing as it’s punctuated with a pot being set down a little too hard on a ceramic cooktop. “Don’t make it weird, you’ll freak him out except he’ll be too polite to say so.”
“I’m perfectly comfortable, Mingjue,” Meng Yao lies through his best customer service smile. Nie Huaisang seems to study him for a moment before he shrugs and flounces off into the house after his brother, leaving Meng Yao free to slip off his shoes and carefully place his bag down just so right beside them, attempting to take up as little space as possible in the Nie home.
He heads down the short hallway when he’s finished to find that it opens out into the living room directly, stairs to the second floor straight ahead and a shadowed hallway tucked just to the left of them. Directly to his left is the kitchen, currently more brightly lit than the lamps in the living room can provide, and he turns to find Nie Mingjue has already shrugged out of his suit jacket and is rolling his sleeves up his ridiculously muscular forearms – a feature Meng Yao has never felt all that strongly about one way or the other…right up until he’d gotten to see Nie Mingjue’s up close and personal on that Fucking Work Retreat (as he’s officially dubbed it for his mental filing purposes), and now he’s discovered that so long as Nie Mingjue’s are the forearms in question, he’s…intrigued.
“Want anything to drink?” Nie Mingjue offers without looking up from the knife he’s sharpening with casual expertise, quick and fluid. “We’ve got white or red wine, whiskey, water, juice, I think A-Sang’s got some of that weird kombucha stuff stashed at the back of the fridge becoming sentient..”
“Wine would be lovely. Whichever you think will go best with dinner,” Meng Yao is quick to assure before he’s subjected any further to Nie Mingjue being casually thoughtful in a way that has no right to make him as flustered as it does. Nie Mingjue doesn’t seem to think anything amiss, just nods and fetches a glass down from the top shelf of the cabinet in front of him (with an ease that just isn’t fair, the fucking giant). Nie Huaisang snags a bottle of red from the fridge – Meng Yao can’t see the label from where he’s hovering uncertainly in the doorway to know if it’s any good or not – and within moments Nie Huaisang is ferrying the glass from the counter at Nie Mingjue’s elbow to Meng Yao’s waiting hands.
This is too damn weird, but Meng Yao is in too deep now, and Meng Shi didn’t raise a quitter. If the Nie brothers want to act like this isn’t definitely the weirdest meal they’ll ever have then fine, Meng Yao can play that game too. Definitely.
He’s halfway through his glass of wine and reeling a little bit from watching the brothers interact in their own element, without the structure of the office to guide their behavior, when Nie Huaisang suddenly looks over from where he’s poking at Nie Mingjue’s cheek while he cooks to instead lock his sights on Meng Yao. He stiffens a bit in anticipation of being drawn into their easy banter – something he’s not sure he could ever manage even with serious effort – but Nie Huaisang just gives him a wide smile and dramatically declares to the room at large,
“House tour!! I love giving house tours, come with me!”
Meng Yao, amused despite his best intentions to remain neutral, simply transfers his wine safely to one hand just in time for Nie Huaisang to grab his arm and loop his own through it as casually as if they’re not just (slightly uneasy) workplace acquaintances. Nie Huaisang uses their linked elbows to drag him out of the kitchen trailed by the sound of Nie Mingjue calling out, “Dinner’s in 20 minutes, A-Sang!”
“Okay da-ge!”
The next few minutes pass in a blur of cheerful, slightly absent-minded chatter about the interesting spots around the house that Nie Huaisang shows him to – the den just off the living room; the sunroom down the hall, currently full to bursting with potted plants under various soft yellow grow lights; the garden out the back, though there’s not much to be seen in the dark like this besides the koi pond glittering in the light spilling from the living room windows. Nie Huaisang also points out the dim, hulking form of a prefabricated wooden shed tucked away on the opposite side of the garden from the pond and explains that it’s Nie Mingjue’s studio for his leatherworking projects, the idea of which is so thoroughly distracting Meng Yao barely notices it as they return inside and head upstairs.
“That’s da-ge’s side of the house to the left, and mine is over here to the right,” Nie Huaisang gestures, oblivious to Meng Yao’s distraction. “Da-ge’s got a home gym and that’s his bedroom right at the end of the hall, and then here’s mine!” Nie Huaisang flings the door open with a dramatic flourish that leads Meng Yao to suspect that this is the entire goal of this little ‘house tour’.
A hunch that turns out to be entirely correct, as far as he can tell, as he’s immediately cajoled into helping Nie Huaisang choose an outfit to wear out clubbing after dinner. It’s a small mercy that Nie Huaisang doesn’t really want his opinion other than to approve the choices he’s already made, since his mind is full of pleasant static created by the knowledge that post-dinner it’ll just be him and Nie Mingjue alone in the house and his tentative hopes might not be dashed after all.
Dinner, when they head back downstairs in response to Nie Mingjue’s call, is..noisier than Meng Yao would have expected. Nie Huaisang pouts and jokes and teases his brother just as much as he had while he was watching Nie Mingjue cook, and Nie Mingjue takes it in stride with just enough mildly-snappish retorts that Nie Huaisang doesn’t take anything too far towards genuinely irritating. Meng Yao is, thankfully, left mostly to his own devices to eat and observe them interacting together like a behavioral scientist, fascinated by the dynamic of two such different people. Nie Huaisang ropes him into the conversation enough that he doesn’t feel left out, but also doesn’t attempt to get him to tease Nie Mingjue with him, leaving him free to maintain at least some semblance of professional distance without ending up too isolated.
It’s an extremely delicate balance, and Nie Huaisang handles it masterfully. Meng Yao puts a tick mark or two on his mental list of how many reasons he can spot to perhaps try to get a little bit closer to Nie Huaisang.
When their plates are empty Nie Huaisang jumps to his feet to clear the table, and Meng Yao raises an eyebrow at the surprising display of industriousness as Nie Mingjue rolls his eyes.
“He can’t leave to go out until he helps me clean up,” Nie Mingjue explains with a sigh. “And just dumping the dishes in the sink unfortunately counts as ‘helping’ in the loosest sense of the word. It’s not worth debating it with him, believe me.”
“Done, da-ge!” Nie Huaisang chirps and practically flies out of the kitchen to hurry upstairs and, presumably, get changed into the outfit Meng Yao had ‘helped’ him pick out by making appreciative noises at all the right times.
“Is that a house rule or simply a rule for Nie Huaisang?” Meng Yao asks around the rim of his nearly empty water glass. He’s supremely glad he’s not predisposed to blushing, as he has every reason to be embarrassed about his obvious attempt at fishing to extend his stay long enough that he won’t be expected to leave when Nie Huaisang does. “Am I also forbidden to leave until I help you clean up?”
Nie Mingjue snorts at that and downs the last dreg of his after-dinner whiskey (which reminds Meng Yao way too much of the fact that he’d also ordered a whiskey for himself after that first dinner as well on the Fucking Work Retreat a mere hour and a half before he’d let Meng Yao fuck him senseless) but, and this is crucial, he doesn’t say no.
“Normally I’d say a guest isn’t allowed to help, but something tells me you’d really hate sitting around not doing anything while I take care of things in here,” Nie Mingjue says, and it’s teasing and snarky and relaxed in a way Meng Yao wants to hear so much more of.
“Correct.”
“Alright. Then yes, you’re forbidden from leaving until we’ve cleaned up.”
“Perfect, I’ll get started then,” he says in his best ‘I’m-just-the-most-helpful-man-you’ve-ever-met’ voice that he uses exclusively at work. Nie Mingjue laughs at that, his extremely rare belly-laugh, and this time Meng Yao does blush just a tiny bit on the back of his neck as he stands up to gather up the last few dishes – his water glass, Nie Mingjue’s empty whiskey glass, a random handful of unused cutlery – and take them over to the sink.
They’re halfway through washing the dishes side by side at the sink when Nie Huaisang swans past the doorway to the kitchen in a froth of lace and glitter and far more skin showing than anything that would be permitted in the office. Meng Yao smiles a little to himself as he hears Nie Mingjue sigh heavily, but he keeps whatever comment he likely has in mind behind his teeth.
“Don’t wait up for me, da-ge! We’re doing breakfast out tomorrow before training so I’ll just stay with Wei-xiong!” Nie Huaisang calls and he doesn’t wait for an answer before he’s sweeping out the door and pulling it firmly shut behind him, the electronic lock humming and clicking over a second later.
“Training?” Meng Yao asks, both out of genuine curiosity as well as in an attempt to keep their abrupt solitude from becoming awkward.
“Martial arts. He’s friends with some other business family kids in the area – well they’re not kids anymore, but you know – and they all go to the same gym in town to work out on Saturdays. I’ve been trying to get A-Sang to actually train while he’s there, but I haven’t had the time to go with him since our dad died, and no one else bothers to make him. He just goes to hang out, and then they all go out again together Saturday night.”
“Ah, I see,” Meng Yao hums and keeps the flood of further questions at bay. Nie Mingjue isn’t the most forthcoming man – not that Meng Yao has any room to talk, he knows – so the details of his personal life are more than a little lacking in Meng Yao’s mental files about him. This seems like a better chance than any he’s had so far to get Nie Mingjue to open up and satisfy some of his curiosity, but considering Meng Yao has…other possibilities in mind for the evening, it’s probably a better idea to appear as polite and unassuming as possible to avoid ruffling feathers.
They lapse into a comfortable, companionable silence as they work, Meng Yao washing and rinsing each dish before he hands them off to Nie Mingue to dry and put back where they belong. He navigates the kitchen with ease and confidence, which Meng Yao knows is only to be expected since it’s his kitchen, but it’s still unfairly attractive to see him not only in his element but also..comfortable. Casual. His sleeves are still rolled up from when he’d gotten them out of his way to start cooking, and Meng Yao finds the hand drawing wide, soapy circles around one of their plates slowing down as he gets a bit distracted thinking of how nice they look – and how much nicer they’d look on either side of his head while Nie Mingjue pins him down.
Without Nie Huaisang here for a buffer, Meng Yao finally has no choice but to confront his own motivations for accepting the invitation into Nie Mingjue’s home. It leaves him feeling strangely squirmy, the slick curl of anticipation escaping him a bit and slipping dangerously close to anxiety before he reins it back in.
They finish washing the rest of the dishes as Meng Yao makes his peace with his own selfishness and the ways it’ll probably come to bite him in the ass later, and when he looks up from drying his hands one final time it’s to find Nie Mingjue already watching him, a bit of tension in his shoulders and the hard line between his brows.
“A-Yao,” Nie Mingjue starts with an effort. “I know we didn’t really ah…talk about what happened before…you know, at the hotel when we-“ Nie Mingjue clears his throat and seems to be forcing himself when he meets Meng Yao’s gaze again- “but I mean..if you want-“
Fuck it, Meng Yao thinks somewhat savagely and throws caution to the wind.
“Mingjue if you don’t kiss me in the next ten seconds I’m actually going to castrate you,” he snaps to put them both out of their misery, and he’s pleased to startle a genuine laugh out of Nie Mingjue. He braces himself against the counter as Nie Mingjue crowds him against it, and then he’s being wrapped up tightly in stupid big, strong arms against Nie Mingjue’s chest, and he’s helpless to do anything but melt into the hungry press of Nie Mingjue’s mouth against his.
That first night, he’d thought it would no doubt be a one-time thing. It had been fun, the slow buildup over the afternoon, driving Nie Mingjue insane at dinner, waiting to hear if he would do anything about it once they were back in their room. It had been so freeing to let himself want, to be wanted right back. He hadn’t thought he’d get more than that – but then Nie Mingjue had asked for him again, and again, and so Meng Yao had happily fucked him every single night they’d spent at that damn conference. It’s the only thing that had made all the schmoozing and corporate chatter truly worth it, if he’s being honest. And when that had ended he’d thought for sure that would be the end of the line. He’s nothing if not realistic.
Except now, right there in Nie Mingjue’s own kitchen, the man slides a hand into the back pocket of his trousers to grope his ass while he tries to fuck Meng Yao’s throat with his tongue and Meng Yao is very abruptly a live wire from head to toe, without much room left in his brain to be very realistic about this at all. He releases his death grip on the edge of the counter pressing into the small of his back in favor of wrapping his arms tightly around Nie Mingjue’s broad shoulders and he digs in with his nails when it just makes the man hold him even tighter.
“Can’t believe I almost picked a finance spreadsheet over this,” he mumbles when Nie Mingjue lets him breathe, ducking down to nip at his neck a couple times in quick succession before he just stays there, face buried against his throat and breathing slightly ragged.
“What do you want, A-Yao?” he finally asks, his lips hot and wet against his skin in just the right way. “We can do anything you want, just tell me.”
Meng Yao tips his head back to thunk against the bottom couple inches of the cabinet behind him and forces down the first few thoughts that crowd into the front of his mind – things that he wants that no one has been willing to give him, things he doesn’t feel like he’s ready to ask for, things that would require more time than the few hours he has until the last train of the night runs, or more energy and stamina than either of them likely have at the moment.
But that still leaves – “I want you to fuck me.” He bites down the urge to ask for a back massage while they’re at it and just leaves it at that, but it’s more than enough.
Nie Mingjue shivers against him with a little hum in the back of his throat, teeth teasing and scraping at the side of Meng Yao’s neck just firmly enough to make him gasp but not enough to mark him. He suddenly, desperately wants to be marked, to be kissed so greedily it lingers for days, a delicious ache he can dig his fingers into to keep feeling it until it fades. But how is he meant to ask for that? How can he tell Nie Mingjue he wants to walk away from this with irrefutable evidence of what they’ve done when he already knows that no one else can ever be allowed to know about this?
“Right now,” he breathes instead. “I want you to fuck me right now. Mingjue-“
“Okay,” he agrees easily, like it isn’t one of the most selfish things Meng Yao has ever asked for. “Okay yeah, definitely, fuck.”
Meng Yao exhales sharply in the split second before Nie Mingjue kisses him again, all tongue and teeth in a way that satisfies at least a small part of him that wants this to hurt. He slings his legs around Nie Mingjue’s waist when the man lifts him up with broad hands under his thighs and refuses to stop kissing him long enough to take Meng Yao upstairs. It means Nie Mingjue getting worked up enough to slam him up against the closest wall a few separate times to grip his thighs tight enough to bruise (he desperately hopes it’ll bruise) as he rolls their hips together with a juddering, anxious rhythm – which means it’s perfect.
They make it there eventually, though, and Meng Yao forces himself not to cling to Nie Mingjue when the man leans down to set him carefully on the edge of his mattress. He feels like he’s being torn in half when Nie Mingjue steps back and leaves him cold and bereft there on his loosely-made king sized bed, and so he distracts himself with scooting backwards onto it properly and getting comfortable on the mountain of pillows while Nie Mingjue does something in what he assumes is the en-suite on the other side of the room.
“Lights on or off?” he asks when he emerges shirtless, foil condom packet, lube, and a washcloth in hand. When they’d fucked around in the hotel each time it had been in the dark, groping hands and fumbling kisses, exploring each other with trembling fingertips and the sweat-slick glide of skin on skin.
“On,” Meng Yao says, though he leans over to click on the bedside lamp so Nie Mingjue turns off the overheads again before he finally comes back to him. Meng Yao, despite how much he’s itching to yank Nie Mingjue down on top of him, takes a deep breath in to try to calm down as he admires the sight of Nie Mingjue lit rather dramatically from the side with a warm yellow glow as he slips out of his trousers to leave them in a puddle of fabric on the floor. He sets his spoils down on the nightstand and then, finally, the bed dips under his weight and Meng Yao is allowed a bit of relief from the desire to claw and cling to any good thing he can get his hands on.
Nie Mingjue sprawls out on top of him, pins him down to the mattress with his bulk without making him feel like he’s suffocating, and Meng Yao exhales slowly, eyes drifting shut as he relaxes utterly involuntarily. Nie Mingjue props his weight up on one elbow and curls his hand under Meng Yao’s shoulder to dig his fingertips into the tension at the top of it while he skims his free hand up and down his chest a few times, trading kisses back and forth as easily as breathing. Meng Yao settles further then when Nie Mingjue starts working deftly at his shirt buttons, popping each one free with quick twitches of his fingertips and slipping his hand under his fabric when he has enough room to just press his palm flat against his chest, thumb brushing back and forth over his sternum.
Meng Yao’s hands gradually still and loosen where they’ve been clutched around Nie Mingjue’s shoulder and the back of his neck, and only when he’s completely relaxed does Nie Mingjue continue, still kissing him like they have all the time in the world as he finishes getting his shirt open to push it away to either side.
The press of Nie Mingjue’s too-warm bare chest against his is like heaven, a relief and sweet torture all at once.
He’s fairly sure, because this is Nie Mingjue, that he’d taken the request to fuck him at face value. Nie Mingjue, Meng Yao has learned, is…uncomplicated. Straightforward, with his black and white views on just about everything and his habit of taking most things he hears fairly literally, without much deeper thought unless it’s openly encouraged. There’s little chance that he sees Meng Yao’s request as anything more complex than his own desires had been on that ridiculous work trip – an itch to scratch, a fun way to spend an evening (or a week of evenings).
As far as Meng Yao is concerned, that's absolutely fine, as the truth involves far more vulnerability than he’s willing to show.
Nie Mingjue, always a surprise, rattles him out of his anxious spiraling with nothing more than a slow, dragging caress up the outside of his thigh and Meng Yao shivers through it ever so slightly, lips parting to gasp around the heavy press of Nie Mingjue’s tongue against his. The sensation is muted a little by his trousers, which Nie Mingjue seems to realize at the same moment if the unhappy little noise in the back of his throat and his sudden pawing at Meng Yao’s belt are anything to go by. He hurries to help the other man strip him properly – and slips a finger under the waistband of Nie Mingjue’s underwear to tug at them until he gets the point and slides those down too – until there’s nothing but miles of warm skin and soft sheets and Meng Yao thinks he could die happy just like this.
Nie Mingjue runs a broad, warm hand down the side of his thigh again and this time he’s nearly hypersensitive to it, tracking every millimeter of dry, slightly calloused scratching against his bare skin. By the time Nie Mingjue curls his fingers under his knee and carefully guides it up and back a bit Meng Yao is more than happy to comply and he eases into the stretch with a little sigh, hands tangled in the long part of Nie Mingjue’s undercut and his mouth too easy, too soft, too pliant but he’s unwilling to force himself to stop being goaded into giving in. Nie Mingjue pushes his knee back a little further, and then a little further still – and then suddenly he’s pulling back enough to look down between them so Meng Yao blinks his eyes open, thoroughly confused as to why he’d stopped when they’d been doing so nicely a moment ago.
“Mingjue?”
Nie Mingjue responds by propping himself up further on his elbow and pushing Meng Yao’s knee even further back towards his chest, an unfairly adorable frown puckering between his brows — not unlike that first night in the hotel when he’d seemed completely unable to understand why Meng Yao had been startled to find multiple condom sizes in his bag, why Meng Yao might be surprised to learn that someone like Nie Mingjue not only isn’t aggressively a top himself, but also doesn’t just assume that anyone smaller than him is a bottom. (The bar is criminally low, Meng Yao knows.)
“How far back does your leg go?” Nie Mingjue suddenly asks with another bit of hesitant pressure against his knee, like he’s almost afraid of finding out.
“Oh, that,” Meng Yao dismisses the question breezily to hide the little surge of smug pride that flashes through him. He saves them both some time and curls a hand over his shin to apply enough pressure to bring his leg all the way back, further even than his chest until the top of his knee is pressed to the bed beside his arm, his thigh tilted just a bit to the side to accommodate the necessary angle. “Problem, Mingjue?”
Meng Yao stays still as Nie Mingjue runs his hand down from his knee to his ankle in a reverent sweep, and a smirk steals across his lips when Nie Mingjue curls a massive hand around the fine bones of his ankle to coax it up, up, until his leg is half extended and Nie Mingjue only has to turn his head to be able to press a flurry of kisses along his calf.
“How the fuck are you this flexible?”
“It’s a long and very boring story. Would you like to stop and listen to it, or would you like me to throw my leg over my head while you fuck me?”
“Are those my only choices?”
Against his will, Meng Yao snorts at that and can’t quite keep himself from smiling in amusement, despite the fact that he doesn’t laugh during sex. That’s not allowed, and so he schools his features as quickly as possible in the moment of distraction while he does just what he’d said and extends his leg fully until Nie Mingjue is pressing his ankle into the mattress above and behind his head.
“They aren’t the only options, no, but are you going to attempt to claim that you’re not interested in it when I can feel the evidence otherwise?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Nie Mingjue sounds properly chastened so Meng Yao just smirks and reaches up to coax his fingers away from where they’re clenched tightly around his leg to instead prop his ankle up on Nie Mingjue’s shoulder. He guides their linked fingers down the outside of his leg then, a slow, exploring drag from calf to knee to thigh and then down between their hips pressed so tightly together. He hitches his other knee up just enough to press against Nie Mingjue’s ribs, opening himself up fully and without any question at all as to his intentions, and thankfully that’s really all it takes to get Nie Mingjue firmly with the program again.
Nie Mingjue isn’t necessarily violent, that’s too strong of a word, but he’s definitely not tender either, which Meng Yao appreciates. He’s already on edge from daring to ask for something so selfish when he already knows firsthand how much Nie Mingjue likes to bottom for him, it wouldn’t do to push his luck any further by asking for tenderness as well (nor does he exactly feel prepared to offer it himself in return anyway). It doesn’t necessarily hurt when Nie Mingjue shoves a lube-slick finger inside him, far enough in one fell swoop that the rest of his knuckles grind too hard against the sensitive skin around his entrance, but it’s definitely not comfortable, and the groan that punches out of his chest is a mixture of pleasure and protest that he hopes will go unheeded. He can take it a little rough, likes it that way even, and it’s a relief that Nie Mingjue seems to like it as well without them having to actually talk about it.
Nie Mingjue is merciless. Meng Yao does his best to encourage more of it with anxious rolls of his hips and tight, grasping hands in Nie Mingjue’s hair that make the other man gasp in between heavy kisses, each following exhale shuddering on the way back out against the crook of Meng Yao’s neck damp with sweat already, and they’ve barely even gotten started.
A whine, utterly involuntary and humiliating, escapes his throat when Nie Mingjue not only withdraws his hand but also sits up and back, resting his weight on his calves to kneel between Meng Yao’s legs. Meng Yao shivers as he’s suddenly bereft, untouched save for where his ankle is still hooked over Nie Mingjue’s shoulder, and Nie Mingjue thankfully turns his head enough to smear a kiss to his calf in apology as he fumbles for the condom he’d brought from the bathroom.
“Sorry A-Yao,” he hums and his voice is wrecked already. “Just two seconds, I promise-”
Meng Yao tucks the wounded animal whining in his chest away to lie through his teeth and say, “It’s fine, Mingjue,” because the alternative is to beg for Nie Mingjue to come back, and that’s just…not even remotely an option.
Nie Mingjue keeps to his word, at least; Meng Yao is fairly sure he’s never seen someone roll a condom on as quickly as Nie Mingjue does with an impatient jerk of his fist down his shaft, and the desperation with which Nie Mingjue hurries to come back to him is both flattering and comforting. At least he isn’t alone in his wanting, though he’s not exactly comfortable enough to say that.
He relaxes again when Nie Mingjue lays out over him, when his heat and weight and the subtle, masculine scent of his cologne – deepened and muskier than usual after a day of work – become the only things worth paying attention to to Meng Yao’s sex-addled brain. He groans in relief when Nie Mingjue presses two fingers against him, pressing and testing for a long moment before he slides them inside in an almost perfunctory check to make sure he’s ready. He is, of course – Meng Yao typically prefers to top but there’s plenty of topping one can do while getting split in half, after all – but it’s sort of sweet that Nie Mingjue wants to double check, even if he does it roughly.
“Hips still feeling okay?” Nie Mingjue asks as he withdraws his fingers again and audibly begins slicking himself up, rhythmic and wet down between them.
“Mhm. Don’t worry, I’m more than bendy enough to keep this up at least until you come.”
“Well don’t make it sound like it’s only going to take me 30 seconds,” Nie Mingjue huffs, playfully irritated. Meng Yao smirks and turns his head enough to catch Nie Mingjue’s eye at the same moment he gives his hair a little yank and rolls his hips up to press his leaking cock to the back of the other man’s hand still wrapped around his own erection.
“I don’t think it’s that inaccurate of an estimate.”
Nie Mingjue’s breathless laugh and subsequent, “Go fuck yourself,” are both so fondly amused that Meng Yao doesn’t worry at all that he really means it.
His extra polite work voice is back when he replies, “Apologies, I was under the impression you were going to handle that for me.”
Meng Yao startles just a little when Nie Mingjue swats him on the outside of his thigh for that (lightly) but he doesn’t have much of an opportunity to attempt to categorize how getting hit in bed, even playfully, makes him feel before he’s suddenly extremely distracted by the feeling of Nie Mingjue pressing into him, just too hard and too fast enough for the stretch of it to burn just right.
Nie Mingjue swallows down the gasp that Meng Yao is absolutely helpless to stop, but the whimper that follows goes humiliatingly unmuffled. Meng Yao shivers with embarrassment but thankfully Nie Mingjue either didn’t notice or didn’t care as he just keeps pressing in, in, in, leaving Meng Yao to scrabble at his back and tug at his hair as he attempts to find some way to deal with suddenly finding himself so full.
“Relax,” Nie Mingjue rumbles against his jaw when he’s finally bottomed out, though he doesn’t stop hitching his hips forward just a little every few seconds as if testing to see if he’s actually as far in as he can get. “Breathe, A-Yao, you’re going to make me come if you don’t loosen up.”
“And you were so confident it would take longer than 30 seconds,” Meng Yao teases in a rush, his head falling back down onto the bed as he trembles and tries his best to listen to Nie Mingjue’s objectively good advice. “It’s not my fault you’re such a light touch-”
“It is absolutely your fault. I’ve been thinking about you for weeks, I’ve been half-hard for you all goddamn day, why wouldn’t I be easy for you now?”
Well that’s just. That’s. Something.
Anyway…Moving on.
“Fuck me then, you don’t have to wait,” Meng Yao grumbles to hide how that Does Things – unacceptably mushy things – to his heart that apparently doesn’t remember all the men who have hurt him in the past when he’s pinned under the one man who hasn’t yet. “I want to…” Meng Yao trails off, takes a deep, shuddering breath in, and admits in an embarrassed rush, “I want to feel it tomorrow, and Sunday too if at all possible.”
Nie Mingjue grunts something that vaguely resembles a heartfelt, “Fuck,” and jerks his hips back only to snap them forward again after just a couple inches. It’s a potent mix of friction and keeping him feeling full and Meng Yao can’t stop the whimper that manages to escape his iron control. Thankfully (unexpectedly), this newest whimper seems to do the trick because Nie Mingjue starts fucking into him like he’s trying to make sure they’ll never be able to separate again.
That marks the end of them attempting to talk to each other, which Meng Yao finds he can only be grateful for. The more he’s reminded that this is Nie Mingjue he’s fucking — his boss who’s rigid but fair and ultimately a good man if a little rough around the edges — and the more the man makes him laugh, puts him at ease, the harder he knows it’ll be to remember that this doesn’t mean anything, that he’s little more than a convenient fuck. Much better, then, to have nothing to listen to but the sound of skin on skin and groans through ragged breathing in between the slick-soft release of their mouths each time they break apart.
Meng Yao actually isn’t sure how long they’ve been going at it like that by the time he’s abruptly and painfully empty, and Nie Mingjue pulls away from his mouth just in time for Meng Yao to be unable to stop the whimpering, “No,” that tumbles from his half-numb lips, hands already grasping to try to drag Nie Mingjue back in, just for a little longer.
As he’d done before, Nie Mingjue smears his lips and tongue against the part of Meng Yao’s leg nearest his face in apology, a clumsy approximation of a kiss. But since that isn’t even close to everything Meng Yao wants he still forces himself to open his eyes long enough to glare up at the other man.
“Shh sorry, come here,” Nie Mingjue mumbles, hazy and nonsensical. He carefully nudges Meng Yao’s leg down off his shoulder and Meng Yao begins to panic that they’re done, that Nie Mingjue had come somehow without him realizing it and is on the verge of telling him to get dressed, grab his things, and go. The panic is enough to shock him out of the sort-of-hazy place he’d been happily floating through and he feels it the instant he tightens up again, eyes sharp as he braces himself to be hurt, and not in the way he wants to be.
Nie Mingjue’s hands on his hips are strong and inescapable as the man helps guide him into flipping over onto his stomach, and then he’s lifting his hips up for him enough to slide a firm pillow beneath them and the snarling thing chewing on his diaphragm pauses in its anxious gnawing. Nie Mingjue wastes no time pressing inside of him again the moment the angle is right and Meng Yao is forced to muffle his groan of pure relief in the mattress beneath him, arms up and curled backward over the top his head so he can grab his own hair for an anchor.
Not getting kicked out, then. Just a change in position. Meng Yao breathes through the fading spark of adrenaline making room again for pleasure, and when Nie Mingjue leans down to wrap an arm tightly around his chest and surround him with warmth and his comforting bulky weight Meng Yao is glad he can hide his face to let a couple of overwhelmed tears slip free to immediately soak into the sheets. He releases one hand from clutching at his own hair to reach further back and clutch at Nie Mingjue’s hair again instead, sinking his fingers deep into the long part of his undercut without bothering to care that he’s tugging a braid or two loose with his grasping fingers. For his part, Nie Mingjue just hitches him a little closer and buries a few scratchy kisses into his neck and hair as he resumes fucking into him, so Meng Yao just holds on tighter and sinks away again properly into pleasure.
It takes some long, hazy minutes of just-shy-of-too-hard fucking before the little noises escaping unbidden from somewhere deep in Meng Yao’s chest manage to condense enough to turn into broken calls of Nie Mingjue’s name, soft whimpers that tumble clumsily from his lips to be smushed into the mattress, his arms. They escalate quickly from whimpers to moans, though, as Nie Mingjue starts fucking him somehow even harder, panting harshly against his shoulder and slamming into him hard enough to ache even after he pulls back, to smack their hips together noisily, and when Nie Mingjue slides his hand down his chest, his stomach, to manage to wrap it around his cock for a few rough tugs Meng Yao is powerless to stop the sensation from tipping him over the edge.
He muffles himself at the last moment in the crook of his own elbow as his entire body strains, pleasured and aching and tired but not wanting the ecstasy of his orgasm to fade. Nie Mingjue fucks him through it, slower now but still not gentle, still not tender, still rough enough for Meng Yao to feel like he can sink his teeth into whatever they have, whatever they’re doing, and keep it.
“Fuck, A-Yao,” Nie Mingjue finally grunts against his neck and Meng Yao finds enough muscle coordination to pull Nie Mingjue’s hair and tighten up around him as Nie Mingjue comes, hips hitching in desperate little shoves forward like before as his nails bite into Meng Yao’s hip (Meng Yao has enough pleasure-soaked brain cells left to be glad Nie Mingjue had let go of his softening cock before being overcome by his own orgasm).
When it’s over, Meng Yao settles happily enough with a little hum to let Nie Mingjue know he’s perfectly happy with the way the other man has collapsed on top of him, solid and heavy and real. It’s grounding, centering, and Meng Yao doesn’t even care that he can only breathe shallowly or that he’s way too hot despite the way their sweat is trapped clammy and slick between his back and Nie Mingjue’s chest. There’s the faint scratch of sparse chest hair against his shoulder blades and Nie Mingjue’s thundering heart drumming against his skin and his cock going soft buried deep in his ass and their legs tangled together in a messy heap and Nie Mingjue’s cheek resting against the side of his head and —
“Already back to thinking too much, hm? I can fuckin’ hear it,” Nie Mingjue mutters in his ear, punctuates it with a sloppy kiss just below it that makes him shiver.
“Always,” Meng Yao mumbles, cheek still smushed against the bed beneath him.
“Should I be offended that wasn’t enough to tire you out so much you stop thinking for five minutes?”
Meng Yao smiles a little, sleepy and sated and therefore thoroughly willing to delude himself into thinking he’s allowed to have post-coital teasing.
“Maybe you’ll just have to try harder next time.” The sleepy warmth suffusing him abruptly disappears at his own words – his presumption that he’ll get to sleep with Nie Mingjue again, and that if they do that Nie Mingjue will want to top for him again. He braces himself for the let-down, for Nie Mingjue to tell him this was a one-time deal in that blunt way that he approaches everything. It’s so refreshing in every aspect of the non-sexual sides of their relationship to never have to doubt what Nie Mingjue’s thinking or feeling, but right now he thinks that if Nie Mingjue were to reject him before they’ve even stopped basking in the afterglow it would absolutely crush him.
“Deal,” Nie Mingjue agrees easily with a noisy kiss to the back of his shoulder. “Only fair after you fucked me so well last week, ah?”
Meng Yao blinks a little at the easy acceptance of it – maybe one day he won’t be startled by how easily Nie Mingjue accepts his space in his life in such a casual way, but it’s doubtful. But if Nie Mingjue wants to see this as a trade – a tit for tat – then Meng Yao isn’t above taking advantage of a more..transactional approach than anything approaching actual vulnerability. Actually that sounds like a nice bonus.
“Only fair,” he agrees and starts a little when Nie Mingjue suddenly ducks down closer to kiss the corner of his mouth clumsily as if to seal the deal. Meng Yao turns his head enough to get a proper kiss and then they settle down again into comfortable silence for a few minutes as heartbeats slow and sweat (and the mess under Meng Yao’s hips) becomes too cold and unpleasant for hanging out together like this to be feasible anymore.
“Okay, gross. Off,” Meng Yao mutters with a hand thrown out blindly behind himself to smack weakly at Nie Mingjue’s thigh and the man groans a little as he sits up enough to hold onto the base of the condom and pull out, Meng Yao shivering hard as he’s left empty and cold. He hides his face fully in his arms for a long moment of necessary privacy to get himself back under control, tucking away the biting loneliness with the ease of many years of practice while Nie Mingjue rolls to his feet and starts cleaning up.
“Do you want to take a shower or anything?” Nie Mingjue offers as he chucks the used condom in the trash and steps back into the bathroom to run the tap for a moment. Meng Yao chances a glance up at him out of the corner of his eye when he returns and it’s to find he’s wet the washcloth he grabbed earlier and is returning to bed with it. In the interest of maintaining some shred of his dignity, Meng Yao forces himself to sit up and take it from Nie Mingjue’s outstretched hand to take care of a perfunctory clean up on his own.
“No, I’d better head home, I’ll just take one there,” he forces his slightly numb, kiss-bruised mouth to say.
“Suit yourself. Want a ride?”
Meng Yao would fucking love a ride instead of having to sit on the train with a (pleasantly) sore ass and probably very clearly having just gotten fucked within an inch of his life, but with the post-orgasm glow officially gone reality is creeping in cold and harsh from the sidelines. He doesn’t get rides home from hookups, just like he doesn’t use their showers or let them hold him for longer than it takes the buzz to fade. It’s too much – too much to ask for, too much to reveal of himself, too intimate for people who are just going to hurt him sooner or later.
“I’m alright,” he says with a smile to temper the second rejection. “I’m not far, don’t trouble yourself. Just relax.”
Nie Mingjue looks at him in silence for a long moment before he shrugs and offers an easy, “Suit yourself.” Meng Yao lets out a silent sigh of relief once Nie Mingjue’s back is turned so he can tug on a pair of sweatpants out of his dresser. And nothing else. God Meng Yao needs to go home or he’s going to do something stupid like ask to stay the night so he can get fucked again as soon as physically possible. There should be a law somewhere that anyone with a dick as nice as Nie Mingjue’s isn’t allowed to wear gray hip-hugging sweatpants, especially while going fucking commando.
Instead of begging to stay, he stands and gets dressed, though he doesn’t bother buttoning his shirt all the way up or combing his fingers through his hair to make sure it’s laying flat – none of it will help him look less sex-drunk so what’s the point?
When they’re both relatively presentable, Nie Mingjue walks him downstairs and leans against the wall of the front hallway with his arms crossed over his bare chest, expression inscrutable as he watches Meng Yao bend over to tie his shoes.
“D’you want to come over again next week?” he asks abruptly, like he’d been meaning to keep it back but gave up. “A-Sang and I have dinner together every Friday night but he always goes out after we’re done, so it’s just me hanging around here by myself.”
Meng Yao takes a deep breath in and straightens, messenger bag on his shoulder (the strap digs into a bruise Nie Mingjue had left at some point on his collarbone and his breath hitches traitorously in his chest with a little zing of pleasure. He hadn’t even had to ask for it after all).
“You don’t think Huaisang would mind me intruding again?”
Nie Mingjue shrugs and Meng Yao very pointedly does not watch all those stupid big fucking muscles of his shift under tanned skin. “I already told you earlier it’s not an intrusion, but even if it were I wouldn’t really care if he minds. He barely stays long enough to eat before he’s running out to go clubbing anyway, if it bothers him he can just eat out with his friends instead.”
As wildly uncomfortable as Meng Yao is with the idea of forcing Nie Huaisang away from the routine dinners he has with his brother in their own home, the prospect of turning this into something regular – at least until Nie Mingjue has paid him back for the week of evenings he’d spent fucking him – is too much of a siren call to ignore.
“Then yes, I’d like that.”
Nie Mingjue shoots him a crooked smile, one that makes a dimple pop in his cheek, and Meng Yao very quickly worries for the integrity of all the rules he sets for himself around hookups. He’s so busy shoring up his defenses again, in fact, that he completely misses that Nie Mingjue is leaning in until he feels soft, warm lips and the scratch of his mustache pressed firmly against his cheek.
“I’ll see you Monday morning, then?” he asks quietly, still far too close for anything remotely resembling ‘professional work relationship’.
“Mhm!” It’s not a squeak but by god is it close.
“Good. If you can’t still feel this by Sunday feel free let me know then and I’ll spend the whole week thinking up how I can do better next weekend.”
Meng Yao does not blush, he does not blush.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Good. See you Monday, then. Get some sleep.”
“Mm.” Meng Yao hesitates for one long moment before he goes up on his toes to kiss Nie Mingjue’s cheek quickly, chastely, and then he’s out the door without a second glance to see how that was received, he doesn’t want to know. He heads down the street at his usual fast clip and lets thoughts of planning his route home using various public transportation networks distract him from how his cheeks are burning as he leaves the Nie house behind.
For now.
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naysaltysalmon · 9 months ago
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I'm trying to write the most NieYao-centric content on AO3
Will be updated as I go
Elegy of the Night : 8.1K, NR (childhood trauma, violence, verbal abuse)
While staying in Qinghe, Nie Mingjue learns that Meng Yao once played the qin.
Adolesco aeternum : 63K, E, RuoYao, bkgd NieYao (attempted r*pe/noncon, blood/gore, torture)
“Meng Yao, tell me, why should I trust the word of a traitorous dog?” Meng Yao steadies himself. “Because Clan Leader Nie and Clan Leader Jin humiliated me. And I sense His Excellency to be a man of a—different, higher caliber.” He isn’t so sure whether his words are lies anymore. “I can be of great service to you,” he says in earnest, lifting his face. -- Meng Yao is Wen Ruohan’s right-hand man; his head torturer; his confidante; and something… more. He fears it will end the same way: cast out and forgotten, broken and used, should his intentions ever be discovered. As it stands, Wen Ruohan is the keeper of his heart, his shining sun—his savior. And as the war rages on, Meng Yao becomes more unsure of where his true loyalties lie.
With my heart in the palm of your hand : 6.5K, E (bdsm/kink, sexual content, trauma)
Curious about the appeal of being a submissive, Nie Mingjue asks Meng Yao to take control during sex. Meng Yao unveils more than he bargained for.
The ocean's face : 83K, E (r*pe/noncon, blood/torture, graphic violence, sexual content)
If Huaisang gives himself away now, Meng Yao thought, Clan Leader Nie will never forgive me. “You must be Wen Xu,” he forced himself to utter. His throat was parched, drier than the landscape, but from that strain he shook an accent deeper, defiant enough to be a young master of the Nie household. Wen Xu smiled at him coolly, walking closer. “Indeed I am,” the Wen heir confessed. “The same that laid waste to Cloud Recesses all those years ago.” He crouched down to be level with Meng Yao on the ground, an elbow on one knee, and smiled at him patronizingly. “All the good Clan Leader Nie’s intervention did to stop it. By which of course, I mean, none.” Meng Yao lurched forward threateningly. He did not have to feign the rage in his heart to solidify his attackers’ false deductions. -- Mistaken for Nie Huaisang, Meng Yao is kidnapped by the Wen. Nie Mingjue and Huaisang must justify going after him, though there are many in Qinghe and Qishan who believe Meng Yao is unworthy and replaceable. Nie Mingjue is determined to bring him home – but will Meng Yao be the same when he returns?
Bathtime : 6.7K, M (fluff, smut, slow-burn)
Meng Yao is eager to please his new superior. Nie Mingjue is the one who promoted him to his current position to be able to afford such luxuries, after all. When Clan Leader Nie makes it a habit for them to share a weekly bath, however, Meng Yao hesitates over the man’s true intentions all along.
Tracing the Bounds of Your Flames : 63K, E (dubcon, mild noncon, graphic violence)
Demonic cultivation demands a heavy toll from the heartiest souls. None recover, even when trained to combat its malefic influence since their youth. Nie Mingjue knows this well, yet Meng Yao can only see him as the enigmatic clan leader, the man with an exterior so cold he has no idea why Nie Mingjue saved his life at all. Ensnared in a discipline and authority that threatens to devour them both, will Meng Yao be able to let go of his past, or will he destroy everything he holds dear in the process of trying to gain control?
Within these Walls : 1.7K, E (dubcon)
Nie Mingjue gave Meng Yao his home, his life, his bed. But it wasn’t meant to last. He went too far – a mistake he would pay for the rest of his life.
Other MDZS:
Devotion : SongXueXiao, XueXiao & SongXiao focus, 2.8K, M
Song Lan and Xue Yang killed each other in Yi City. So Xiao Xingchen ventures into the underworld to find them.
Painting You : SangCheng, background NieYao, 10.7K, M
“What’s so stupid about it?” Huaisang snaps. “Every sect leader needs someone to help them run things, even my…” Even my brother, once. Jiang Cheng rounds on him. “Oh yeah? Then what about you? Now that you’re Sect Leader Nie, you’ll need to find yourself a wife.” Huaisang laughs. “Jiang-xiong, you should know I could never marry. Not a woman, at least.” He says it lightly, half expecting Jiang Cheng to laugh along with him, but Jiang Cheng’s back goes stiff as a rod. He leans visibly away. “What? You mean you’re a… a cut-sleeve?!” Huaisang guffaws, hoarse and loud. He bats his eyelashes, crested with tears, and rolls one shoulder toward Jiang Cheng as he snatches up his fan. “Why of course, Jiang-xiong. Surely, you already knew.” Apparently, Jiang Cheng did not already know.
Droplets on your qin : NieLan, 5.2K, M
It’s been a long time since Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue were able to catch up. They make the most of their time while they can.
I weep & say goodnight : SongXueXiao, SongXue focus, 4.6K, M
The world is ending, and Xue Yang is offered to the heavens as a sacrificial lamb. In his final moments, will he be able to live out his fantasy of sharing in death with his two most intimate adversaries, or will they all fade into nothing in the face of total annihilation?
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lansplaining · 2 years ago
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To me, NMJ’s statements like no matter how hard people backbite you you should strive for excellence read like something his ancestors must have said over generations before they finally shook off the stigma of being butchers. That doesn’t & can’t work for JGY but I’m not sure I believe NMJ’s background is solely about unqualified privilege, bc at the end, nieyao both come full circle & get sealed under “heavy barriers & endless scorn”. & I still think nieyao parallel Meng Shi & JGS.
Sure, but that stigma has now been shaken off in all the ways that matter. It does not influence how people treat NMJ day-to-day or on a larger scale. It's like people whose Depression-era grandparents turn off the lights every time they leave the room. Absolutely that had a material impact, and people still alive (though not in NMJ's case because, you know, everybody qi deviated) still feel it... but the grandchildren of those people do not.
I just think you've constructed a really circular argument here. The fact that they have the same ending means they have the same background/beginning, and the fact that they have the same background/beginning is proven by the fact that they have the same ending.
I'll share your other ask about the Meng Shi & JGS thing, because I need to dig into the details of what you said to respond...
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