#but nielan have SO MUCH in common too

[poorlittleyaoyao]

We have so much in common with are feelings 😂😂💕 (Nieyao/Nielan vs Xiyao anon). I loved the angst we got from Xieyao the show wise (and idk the Dougha did an amazing job in some aspects with making my heart wretch for them) but a lot of the fanworks are too fluffy for me (I do ofc have exceptions, I’m drawn in by good premises). And also I too dislike “Nielan was broken by that mean Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao” and I rather like the dynamics “Nielan had a budding romance in their tween years but after experimenting and growing older have other responsibilities and relationships now. Maybe some old memories come up but both are rather happy”. My favorite (ships) for JGY has to be Suyao (one sided? Sure! Requited? Absolutely. Mutual pinning? Yes yes.) and Sangyao (I like it messy and I want them to make each other worse :)) On occasion they can murder people together if NMJ isn’t killed). I too think I could shove JGY in any situation and enjoy (same w/ Jiang Cheng but too a less degree. I can see him with everyone but kinda enjoy the angst of him on his own. If that makes sense). Also, I feel though there’s less Nieyao novel wise it’s pretty palpable. But maybe that’s just me “every time I saw them interact my shipdar went insane”. Some of my “I still like them but in certain scenearios” Jgy pairings are XueYao and JGY/Lan Qiren (it was a realllllly good fic)

SUYAO MY BELOVED. ;_; I just have a lot of feelings about how Su Minshan knew about most of what JGY had going on (it's unclear if he knew about the patricide pre-Temple and even less clear if he knew about the incest) and was like "I understand bb 🥺 please let me help 🥺"

JGY's shipping potential lies in the fact that he ends up entangled with SO MANY PEOPLE in canon that there's something to work with for everyone except, like, Wangxian. The other ships for him that I personally am like "if you have multichapter explorations, hmu" are Chengyao and JGY/Yanli (Yaoli?), neither of which has as much to draw on in canon as other ships but there is potential that can either fix things or make things much worse depending on one's mood and I stand by that. Sangyao and XueYao are both great terrible fun, though, and I'm now very curious about how he and LQR would play out.

(That said. If I'm really being honest, the healthiest option for the man would probably be for him to take some time alone oh my god, because his chronic customer service "adjusting to what your audience wants" shtick is uhhh Not Great in a romantic relationship context and really Not Great if that relationship is also sexual. He and Qin Su make me so sad in part because he seems like he was pretty unguarded with her in novel canon... until he VERY MUCH WASN'T and trapped her in a godawful situation.)

[gekidasa]

For the writer emoji ask: 🥺, 🧠(NMJ), and 🤯

Thanks, Jaime! 🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

I like quiet moments where you can feel the weight of things that are unsaid. Which is why I love pining hahaha Seriously though, that's why I love Touya and Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura (the first pair I ever REALLY shipped in a fandom way, first one I wrote fanfic for), and also SuiTang from Fourteenth Year of Chenghua (never written them, but I love them). It just comes baked in. And it's what I try to do when I write ships. This is the holy grail.

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

Dage! 💚

I love him very much, so you get 3 headcanons.

He will reincarnate. Either NHS will figure out a way to cleanse his him of resentment (with help) or in an angsty scenario I've have for ages, LXC will. But he will be able to reincarnate. And in another life, he and LXC can find each other again and live their life together and be happy. (And actually, this is pretty much the lens through which I see any modern AU with them... I mean, in a way if you dig, it's why I do like modern mdzs -- I am actually not usually a fan of AUs that are outside the scope of the source material -- but with nielan you don't have to dig very far, I'm always outright seeing it as reincarnation).

This is a NMJ headcanon as it relates to sangcheng, and it is that NMJ likes and respects JC. He's a a straight-shooter, no bullshit, dependable. And he understands the difficulty of having to lead a clan before you're ready (to be fair, he was several years younger than JC, but the empathy is there). So given all this... he approves of JC's relationship with his little brother. JC is a good man.

Not sure if this is a headcanon or something else, but it hit me listening to the NMJ empathy parts of the MDZS audio drama... there's so much character work in the voice acting, and what the voice says about the character, and in NMJ's case the best way I can describe it is he gets the most classic martial hero voice in the cast. A hero that is betrayed and brought low and falls. But it doesn't change what he was.

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

So the thing about fic is that I tend to get very specific scenarios as ideas, and they are most certainly not complete fics, and then if it's not an under 1000 word one shot that I can pop out really quick, I'll probably get flashes of other scenes. And honestly the hardest part for me is taking those ideas and actually crafting a story out of them. All the details. The actual PLOT. That is the hardest for me.

Like I would love to be able to write an intricately plotted out political thing, but I know that's beyond me. I run on vibes. And actually most of the fic I wrote before sangcheng was just vibes, no plot. A lot of my sangcheng, the one shots, are too. 😂

[stiltonbasket]

What made you decide to ship Lan Xichen with Nie Mingjue? Since Nielan is one of the less common LXC ships (though I love it the most). But LXC is more frequently shipped with JC and JGY, so I was just curious how you decided on the ship. Especially since NMJ was long dead by the time CQL ended.

As for how my Nielan agenda started, it was partly because I couldn’t get into any of Lan Xichen’s “main” ships. I didn't get much of a Xiyao vibe from the novel and LXC barely interacted with Jiang Cheng at all, so I didn't find that ship compelling either. But I wasn't that invested in any of the characters during my early fandom days, so I was a-ok with reading background xicheng and xiyao in Wangxian fics.

But then I started drafting TMAAF, and I had to decide what to do with Lan Xichen going into seclusion. It didn't seem right to leave him there, so I had A-Qing survive Yi City and recover with LXC's help; and after Lan Xichen got the chance to save one person who was hurt as a result of JGY's actions, the rest of his character arc in TMAAF came naturally. He realized that still being alive meant that he could change things going forward, and that he was first and foremost a sect leader; he was still responsible for the people in his care, and decided that had no right to shut himself away from them while he still held his position.

At the time, I noted that Nie Mingjue would likely have had a similar outlook in LXC’s place, but it was just a passing thought. And then I reread a few chapters of the novel, and stumbled across this passage:

The headless corpse lunged again. Lan XiChen had finally returned to his senses. Raising Liebing to his lips, he started to play as well.

Wei WuXian didn’t know if it was only his imagination, but as soon as the soft, serene tone of the xiao appeared, the corpse’s movement paused. For a moment, he seemed to have stood still and listened, then turned around, as though he wanted to see who was the one playing the music. Yet, without eyes or a head, he couldn’t see anything at all.

Much like Lan Wangji did with Wei Wuxian, Nie Mingjue recognized Lan Xichen through his music. But Lan Xichen played Liebing in his presence when Nie Mingjue was a) dead b) unable to see or hear him, even in whatever limited way a fierce corpse might be capable of using its senses, and c) missing his head, and Nie Mingjue paused in his search for his own head because he knew someone he held dear was close by. 

Even brainless, and dead, Nie Mingjue’s body could sense Lan Xichen’s spiritual power and hold himself back from attacking him.

That was the first time I considered Nielan as a romantic pairing, as opposed to friendship, and then I finally realized that TMAAF’s Lan Xichen would never find a happy ending without Nie Mingjue.

Around then, I outlined the backstory of Nielan’s early childhood and the unwitting part they played in Wen Ruohan’s decision to take over the cultivation world (and wrote LXC a happy ending by having Nielan reunite as gods in the heavenly court)! After that, there was no going back. :P

[robininthelabyrinth]

When Cloud Recesses burns, LXC doesn’t run into MY, but instead gets all the way to Qinghe where NMJ finds him. Then all the NieLan. So much NieLan. Forever NieLan!

Lan Xichen never expected to flee his sect, hoping to salvage his life and his sect’s treasures – his father fallen, his uncle still fighting and covered with injuries, his brother insisting on making a stand instead of escaping with him – but there was never the slightest doubt in his mind where he would go once he was.

Qinghe.

The Unclean Realm.

Surely it too cannot have fallen, he thought, over and over, as he made his way through the paths between Gusu and Qinghe. He avoided everyone, especially anyone with even a hint of cultivation – there was one such cultivator, a mild-looking young man with bright eyes, that seemed like he might have been able to help, to hide him if only for a little while, but in the end Lan Xichen thought about his sect’s treasures, thought about how such a rescue would put him in a stranger’s debt, tie their fates together forever, and it just didn’t seem worth it no matter how tired he was.

Not for a stranger.

If he could only get to the Unclean Realm, he’d be safe, he thought, he hoped.

The Unclean Realm, the Nie – they hated the Wen sect more than anyone, had been warning of war, pushing for war, for years; they would have been more ready to deal with this sort of aggression. Lan Xichen’s uncle had always been disapproving of Nie Mingjue for that, for being young and temperamental and not thinking about the costs of war, but now…

Well. It seemed that the argument had most definitively been settled, and that Nie Mingjue had had the right.

(Lan Xichen hoped his uncle would live to admit his mistake. He hoped, he hoped, he hoped -)

The familiar sights of Qinghe nearly made him weep from relief, even as it made his too-near pursuers begin to curse – they did not want to follow him there, he realized, and the relief swelled; Qinghe could not have fallen, not for the Wen sect to be so nervous about going there.

For the first time, he decided to head into a town rather than sticking to the forests, and his gamble paid off – in his plain clothing and hat pulled low, he was able to sidle through the stalls without attracting too much notice, but his pursuers were dressed in Wen colors, drawing attention at once. The common people recoiled from them as if from monsters, and it seemed no faster than the blink of an eye before a handful of Nie sect disciples appeared as if from nowhere, hands on their sabers, to ask aggressive questions about what the Wen sect thought it was doing.

Lan Xichen breathed a sigh of relief and sped up again – it would probably turn into a brawl behind him, and he was using all his cultivation just to stay on his feet; he wouldn’t be any help. All he could do was to take the opportunity to make it further to his destination.

To make it to –

He crossed the border of the Unclean Realm, feeling the sensation like a thrum of a guqin string, and it felt like it was only a heartbeat before he was stumbling up to the gate, the way opening up before him, and Nie Mingjue was there, his arms outstretched.

Lan Xichen collapsed into them gratefully.

He’d been friends with Nie Mingjue for a while. They weren’t that close, mostly because they saw each other so rarely, but they were still familiar in the way that sect heirs tended to be, without anyone else to understand them. Nie Mingjue was a few years older, a little too serious, a too little deadpan, and that mattered as children – and then, just as they were starting to get close again, this time as teenagers, Nie Mingjue’s father had been murdered and the chasm between them had gaped open once again, between a child forced too fast to become an adult and the other able to remain a child.

None of that mattered now.

Not when Nie Mingjue held him in his arms, strong and sure and steady as if he could shield Lan Xichen from the whole world; not when he pressed his lips lightly to Lan Xichen’s hairline, just above his forehead ribbon, trying to calm him as if Lan Xichen were his own younger brother.

Not when Lan Xichen barely managed to get enough air into his lungs to say, “My sect –” and Nie Mingjue replied at once with “The Wen sect will pay for this”.

And – “Your father is critically injured, his survival unknown, but your brother and uncle are alive and expected to recover without issue.”

Lan Xichen couldn’t stand any more, the relief making his bones weak.

“Rest,” Nie Mingjue said, and scooped him up as easily as if he were a child, carrying him inside to a steaming hot bath and a table full of gentle foods that would not irritate his stomach. “You’re safe here. I promise.”

Looking up at Nie Mingjue’s face, the certainty in it, Lan Xichen felt some pang of feeling in his chest – something almost like recognition, although that didn’t make sense since he already knew him – but he was too tired and hungry and worn out to articulate what it was, and so he put it out of his mind.

It wasn’t until late that night – freshly washed, full of food, in warm Nie robes before a warm fire with a light-hearted novel Nie Huaisang had given him as a distraction – that Lan Xichen realized what that feeling had been.

Yes, you. You, always.

Be mine.

[vespertineflora]

3zun Combo Fics

XiYao

we're alone in the dark E, During Canon, Classroom Sex, 4.6k It's the first time Jin Guangyao has had the chance to use the jade token Lan Xichen had given him for free passage in and out of the Cloud Recesses, and it's during this first late evening visit that Jin Guangyao discovers that Lan Xichen has been having fantasies about him for far longer than he ever could have guessed--and that Lan Xichen is very eager to act on one such fantasy.

your love is all i can think about E, During Canon/AU, Love Letters/Sneaking Around, 10.4k After Lan Xichen finally goes all the way with Jin Guangyao in the aftermath of the Sunshot Campaign, responsibility forces the two apart for far longer than either of them care for. When they finally get to see each other again after three long months, having to sit through hours of a discussion conference when the love of his life is just across the room is more than the poor, sexually pent up Lan Xichen can bear, especially as Jin Guangyao seems to realize he likes the effect he's having on him.

in your warmth i forget how cold it can be E, During Canon, Cold Weather Coziness, 3.3k After a long day of traveling in unexpectedly heavy snowfall, Jin Guangyao arrives in the Cloud Recesses and needs Lan Xichen to warm him up.

rest with me a while E, During Canon, Fluff/Smut, 3.8k The day of the Phoenix Mountain Hunt is a stressful one for Jin Guangyao; Lan Xichen can see how tense he is from just a glance. His offer to help Jin Guangyao with his preparations has been turned down more than once, so Lan Xichen isn't sure what he can possibly do to help him... until he realizes there might be one way he might be able to add a bright spot to Jin Guangyao's day. no angels could beckon me back M, During Canon, Post-Coital Cuddling/Confessions, 1.6k What he had with Lan Xichen should have been enough; Jin Guangyao hadn't intended to confess his feelings, and he certainly hadn't meant for them to be confessed like this.

bare your heart to me E, During Canon, Smut and Hurt/Comfort, 9.5k It's impossible for Lan Xichen to say when he first takes notice of it, but a strange exchange one night makes him realize something rather concerning: he hasn't seen Jin Guangyao's naked body in nearly a year. The realization leads to Lan Xichen chasing after the answer to this mystery, ultimately uncovering a painful truth about the daily horrors of Jin Guangyao's life in Carp Tower.

Daylight Can Be So Violent (series) (in progress, but all pieces are functional one shots) if i told you what i’ve become E, During Canon, Confessions/First Times, 13.7k (pt 1) It's Lan Xichen's first visit to Lanling since Jin Guangyao's ascent to the position of Chief Cultivator the previous month, and with everything he's been through recently, he's perhaps tenser than he otherwise would be, spending a peaceful evening with his dearest friend. Luckily, Jin Guangyao has some ideas about the best ways to relieve stress.

heaven help me (i need to make this right) E, During Canon, Light Bondage, 8k (pt 2) The last few months have been... more than Lan Xichen could have ever hoped for. The reconstruction of the Cloud Recesses is complete, which means his uncle is in a good mood. His brother is healed, moving around and spending time with A-Yuan. And his relationship with Jin Guangyao... well, to put it simply, Lan Xichen couldn't be much happier--though Jin Guangyao has no shortage of ideas for them. It's during one of his regular visits to Lanling that Jin Guangyao suggests they... try doing things a different way.

and i'd do anything E, During Canon, Candle Wax/Praise Kink, 4.7k (pt 3) "Do you trust me?" It was that question, and Lan Xichen's resounding yes, that had landed him here, his wrists tied to the bed posts above his head, silk scarf wrapped lovingly around his eyes, his chest heaving with every hard breath, his cock dripping precum in a sticky pool against his stomach, and drips of wax in various stages of hardness scattered all across his skin.

if there was nowhere to land (i wouldn’t be scared at all) T, During Canon, 5+1fic/angst, 10.7k Meng Yao hasn't lead an easy life. He's been pushed around, beaten, and taken advantage of for nearly as long as he can remember... Falling down stairs is one of the worst things he's been through, and he's fallen more times than anyone should have to. OR Five times someone makes Meng Yao fall down a staircase, and one time someone saves him from falling.

they call me underneath M, Post-Canon, Grief/Mourning, 4.2k Lan Xichen never intended to visit the cemetery where his sworn brothers were interred together, but now that he's here, he can't make himself leave without at least trying.

a fine time to regret T, During Canon, Grief/Comfort, 2.3k As it turned out, even knowing Jin Rusong was going to die didn't give Jin Guangyao the chance to prepare himself for it.

NieYao

hold on to what we are T, During Canon, Fluff, 1.9k Meng Yao is dedicated to working harder than ever as the Sunshot Campaign is ramping up, but Nie Mingjue wants him to come to bed.

if you need it, then i need it (and only we'll know) E, During Canon, Sex Pollen, 13.1k Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue are on what they assume to be a normal scouting mission into Wen territory--but the day is turned on its head when they get a bit too close to some strange looking plants that release a thick cloud of pollen as they approach. By the time they make it back to camp, they're both already feeling the effects, and the camp's doctor has some mixed news to share. The bad news? The pollen will lead to a deadly qi deviation if left untreated. The good news? They know how to treat it! Now it's just up to Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue to act on it (and on the feelings they've been secretly harboring for one another for months).

when it comes time to rest my head E, Canon Divergent, Hurt/Comfort, 20.8k When Nie Mingjue spots the freshly bloodied handkerchief Jin Guangyao accidentally drops, his first sickening conclusion is that he's just caught him in the middle of some nefarious deed--but Nie Mingjue investigates further, and instead uncovers a series of injuries across Jin Guangyao's body that tell a much more heart-wrenching tale than the one Nie Mingjue first suspected. Can Nie Mingjue earn back enough of Jin Guangyao's trust to get him to accept the help he so clearly needs? Can he convince Jin Guangyao... to come back to Qinghe with him? i need your broken promises E, Canon Divergent, Werecat!JGY, 11.7k The night Meng Yao is promoted to be Nie Mingjue's deputy, he makes two requests: to be left alone on the night of the full moon, and to not be asked why he needs to be left alone. Nie Mingjue is extremely curious about this odd appeal, but he honors it regardless. Years later, when Nie Mingjue proposes, Meng Yao repeats his requests as the only stipulations for their marriage, and Nie Mingjue once again promises to let Meng Yao keep his secret... until he realizes that perhaps the secret isn't as well kept as he once thought, and he confronts Meng Yao to learn the truth.

the day bleeds into nightfall T, During Canon, Angst and Romance, 2.5k When Wen Chao attacks the Unclean Realm, Meng Yao rushes to release Xue Yang, and Nie Mingjue catches him stabbing his general. Nie Mingjue might have thought he was doing Meng Yao a mercy when he banished him... but Meng Yao isn't sure he agrees.

love me hard oh, love me right E, Modern AU, Rule 63 PWP, 2k Sometimes Meng Yao just needs to be gently dommed by her girlfriend until she cries, and you know what? That's valid.

the love held in her hands E, Modern Fantasy AU, Rule 63/Fairy!MY, 3k When Nie Mingjue's tiny fairy girlfriend asks to be fingered, Nie Mingjue immediately considers it to be a bad idea... but when her search for something more appropriately-sized drags on too long, she decides to give in to Meng Yao's impatient demands.

NieLan

the common tongue of your loving me E, Modern AU, 69ing, 3.7k Lan Huan and Nie Mingjue have been dating for almost two years now, but Nie Mingjue is always coming up with ways for him and his beau to have some new sort of fun in the bedroom. (Submission for NieLan Month 2020, Day 22 Desperation/Beauty/Awe. This is also the 69th fic I've uploaded to my AO3 account haha)

3zun

home is where my love waits E, Modern AU, Sexted Pics & DP, 5.1k Meng Yao is out of town on business for the weekend and Lan Huan and Nie Mingjue have the brilliant idea to send their absent boyfriend some spicy material to keep him warm while he's away (and definitely not because teasing him is very fun). When Meng Yao gets back to his hotel room at night to discover the proverbial feast, he's both very turned on and very frustrated to be so far away--but luckily for Meng Yao, they have more than adequate plans to make up for their teasing once he gets home.

i’ve had no love like your love E, Modern AU, happy birthday jgy!3some, 9.2k It's Meng Yao's birthday, and after working all day, he travels to Nie Mingjue's place in a swiftly escalating winter storm, where a night of warm wine and even warmer company awaits... Nie Mingjue and a tipsy Lan Huan have a delightful plan in place on just how they can warm him up.

how could i ask for more E, Modern Genderbend AU, CNC Roleplay, 14.3k When Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue ask Lan Huan what she wants for her birthday, they strongly imply it can be a sexual favor. Lan Huan asks for so little in the bedroom; she always seems content to just join in whatever activities her girlfriends partake in and never makes specific requests for herself. Of course, when Lan Huan actually indulges their suggestion, the last thing they expect from her is a detailed, written fantasy that she hands to them with an entirely red face... But if such a thing is what Lan Huan wants, Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue will make sure to give her exactly what she's asking for. Written for Whumptober 2020, Theme No 6. PLEASE… (“Get it Out” | No More | “Stop, please”).

there’s a hole in my soul (can you fill it?) E, Modern AU, Hurt/Comfort & Panic Attacks, 6.2k Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue were exes... until Lan Xichen fell in love with both of them and they decided to set aside their differences for his sake. When they're all together, life is bliss--but Meng Yao's relationship with Nie Mingjue is strained at best, and he notices early on in this reconciliation that the only time Nie Mingjue seems willing to hold him or be affectionate with him is after they have sex. Meng Yao has learned that, on the rare nights and weekends when Lan Xichen is away and he needs affection, that having sex with Nie Mingjue is the quickest and easiest way to get it. Lan Xichen just so happens to be out of town after Meng Yao has a particularly bad day at work. He needs the comfort more than ever, but when he tries to get it from Nie Mingjue the only way he knows how, it doesn't go the way he plans.

in my arms you’re safe and sound T, Vampire AU, Hurt/Comfort & Feeding, 2.9k Jin Guangyao is a dhampir who is fully turned when his father accepts him into the family--but Jin Guangshan treats him terribly, and when Nie Mingjue begins to realize how far this mistreatment goes, he drags Jin Guangyao off for a conversation which quickly escalates into an emotional shouting match that results in Nie Mingjue deciding that Jin Guangyao needs to be removed from Carp Tower immediately. Lan Xichen finds them just in time for the three sworn brothers to head together back to Qinghe, where Lan Xichen personally discovers one of the many awful things Jin Guangshan has done to hurt Jin Guangyao.

how were we to know E, Canon Divergent, MAJOR HURT/comfort, 12.9k (check AO3 for warnings on this one!) After the Sunshot Campaign, Meng Yao took Lan Xichen's offer to come live with him in the Cloud Recesses, sparking the beginning of their romantic relationship--which in turn uncovered their individual romantic histories with Nie Mingjue, and led to a shared romantic present with him. In the years since, the three have been in love and quite happy with their shared arrangement. However, eventual grief lingered at the back of their thoughts; they all knew the effect the saber spirit was gradually having on Nie Mingjue's mind and on his temperament, causing more frequent and more violent outbursts... Though none of them could have guessed the particular sort of violence it would lead Nie Mingjue to commit one night alone with Meng Yao.

when you are lost and i am gone M, Canon Divergent, Character Death, 2k When Lan Xichen had received the letter from Meng Yao, he'd left the camp at once to meet him in the forest outside of Nightless City, but even still, he arrives a second too late to do anything but watch as one of his friends cuts down the other. a light on the other side M, Modern AU, JGY-centric, 2.6k As a child, Meng Yao had only ever met his father in passing, as he had a family of his own and wanted little to do with the child that resulted from his affair with Meng Yao's mother. But when Meng Shi passed away tragically, 13 year old Meng Yao was sent to live with his father, spending the rest of his teen years in a living hell until he was able to escape... A few years later, another affair and another tragedy brought infant Mo Xuanyu into the Jin household and Meng Yao returned to keep him safe from the fate he'd suffered himself. Life there is awful, though not nearly as bad as it was before, as Meng Yao spends most of his time alone caring for Mo Xuanyu. However, a few months into his return, Meng Yao is presented with a unique opportunity when, late one night, he finds Jin Guangshan collapsed on the floor of his office.

[trans-axian-archive]

If jingyi is adopted by nielan, sizhui is wangxian’s child, and Jin Ling is Jc’s ward plus biologically and legally jc and WWX’s nephew. Does that mean these kids can post a “we be irritatin’” meme but instead it’s “we be cousins.”

oh yes absolutely. this family dynamic is making my lose my Mind with how many uncles there are like it's hard to comprehend. because jin ling notoriously has a lot of uncles but now he has more... bonus uncles. wei wuxian and jiang cheng (and jin guangyao but he's ugly and dead and mo xuanyu but he's pretty and dead) are his uncles but by marriage nie huaisang and lan wangji are also his uncles and, technically, so are lan xichen and nie mingjue via being his uncles husbands brothers (you're not having a stroke that's a real sequence of words that means things, unfortunately) and THEY'RE married so like. uncle². and it's like that for All Of Them just slightly shifted depending on who the kids parents are. I've helpfully provided this graphic to make things "simpler":

if this incredibly comprehensible and well made infographic doesn't help, let me brake it down character by character:

lan sizhui:

his parents are wei wuxian and lan wangji, which means that jiang cheng (wei wuxians brother) and lan xichen (lan wangjis brother) are his direct uncles and jiang yanli (wei wuxians sister) is his direct aunt. if jiang cheng (in this au) is married to nie huaisang, then nie huaisang is lan sizhuis uncle by marriage, if lan xichen is married to nie mingjue, then nie mingjue is also his uncle by marriage, and if jiang yanli is married to jin zixuan, then jin zixuan is ALSO his uncle by marriage. but we're not done! your uncle by marriages brother could also be considered your uncle. don't know what this is called so I'm referring to it as being someones 'second uncle'. nie mingjue is lan sizhuis second uncle because he is nie huaisangs, his uncle by marriage to jiang cheng, brother. the same goes for nie huaisang - he is nie mingjues brother, who is lan sizhuis uncle by marriage to lan xichen. mo xuanyu and jin guangyao would also be considered second uncles. wen ning is a bonus uncle related to nobody else in his family, wen qing is a bonus aunt. if we add this all up, lan sizhui has eight (8!!!) uncles and two aunts

lan jingyi:

his parents (in this au) are lan xichen and nie mingjue, which means that lan wangji (lan xichens brother) and nie huaisang (nie mingjues brother) are his direct uncles. if lan wangji is married to wei wuxian, then wei wuxian is lan jingyis uncle by marriage, and is nie huaisang is married to jiang cheng, then he is also his uncle by marriage. if wei wuxian is lan jingyis uncle by marriage, and jiang cheng is his brother, jiang cheng is his second uncle, and vice versa for wei wuxian. if wei wuxian and jiang cheng are both his uncles by marriage, then their sister, jiang yanli, would be his second aunt, but her husband, jin zixuan, would probably not be considered his uncle in any respect. lan jingyi has four uncles and one aunt

jin ling:

if his parents are jiang yanli and jin zixuan, then wei wuxian and jiang cheng (jiang yanlis brothers), and mo xuanyu and jin guangyao (jin zixuans brothers) would be his uncles directly. if lan wangji is married to wei wuxian, then he is his uncle by marriage. if nie huaisang is married to jiang cheng, then nie huaisang is also his uncle by marriage. jin guangyaos wife, who I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, would be his aunt by marriage (and his direct aunt. unfortunately.) lan xichen is lan wangjis brother, so he would be jin lings second uncle. nie mingjue is nie huaisangs brother, so he would Also be his second uncle. they're married which really does not mean anything familialy but seems like it has extra uncle power. jin ling has eight uncles and one aunt

lan sizhui and jin ling have the same number of uncles total, and all three of them have the same number of "living" uncles, but lan sizhui has the most "living" direct uncles because of wen ning. they all share two uncles in common: jiang cheng and nie huaisang - perhaps one day they, too, adopt a child, making my graph even more colorful. IMAGINE the family dinners. amazing

I imagine ouyang zizhen, much like myself currently, just sitting on the ground with his head in his hands trying to piece it all together after they explain their family tree to him. he comes to the conclusion that he's happy to be from a smaller clan where this kind of shit doesn't happen. but since he's related to none of them in any way, he could date or marry any of them. I cannot explain the way this possibility and the uncles it would create absolutely shakes me to my core. goodnight

[pangzi]

Otome Gay [Nielan] - Chapter 5

word count: 1869 other chapters:  INTRO - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 [AO3]

Since then, things with Xichen were a bit strange. It felt like both everything and nothing had changed. They still talked as much, but sometimes when things got a bit too flirty or serious, Xichen seemed to suddenly get a lot quieter. Mingjue didn’t really know how to handle this. He didn’t want to think too much of it, maybe Xichen just wanted to take things a bit slower than Mingjue, and that was totally okay. But there was always this little nagging voice in his head that told him he did something wrong and now Xichen wasn’t interested anymore. Always followed by the other nagging voice that said that of course Xichen isn’t interested, why would he be, that Xichen is too good for him and he should be happy he even wants to be his friend. 

Mingjue wanted to just take his brain out and throw it in the trash whenever those thoughts took over. It was so ridiculous, Xichen had agreed to go on a date with him, he wouldn’t do that if he wasn’t interested. He wouldn’t lead Mingjue on, he was sure of it. Xichen even kept saying how much he was looking forward to their date on Friday, as long as he still was, Mingjue shouldn’t worry. Although it wasn’t the best first date, it still beat a movie date. They could just find a quiet place to talk after greeting their brothers and some of their friends and spend the entire night talking. Mingjue would find a way to make it romantic. 

Mingjue had planned to take Huaisang to Haidilao Hot Pot on Thursday as an early birthday celebration, as it had become somewhat a tradition in the past few years. There was even a new restaurant opening near Huaisang’s university, so it was perfect. Or, it would have been, had one of Huaisang’s mandatory classes not been rescheduled for the exact time Mingjue had made a reservation. 

It was foolish to give up a reservation in such a popular restaurant so Mingjue decided to still go, he’d take Huaisang again another time. Xichen was going somewhere with Wangji tonight, so he couldn’t ask him to come along. So instead he decided to take Zonghui. 

When they arrived, the line of people without a reservation was incredibly long. Mingjue almost felt bad that they could just go inside without waiting. Right when they walked in, he saw a familiar face in line. Meng Yao. 

For a moment he wanted to just walk inside, remembering the way Meng Yao had looked at him last time they met. He didn’t trust him one bit, but he was Xichen’s best friend, he should probably try and be at least on good terms with him. So he told Zonghui to wait a moment. 

“Meng Yao”, Mingjue called to catch the boy’s attention, who turned to him immediately. “You can come in with us, we have a reservation”, Mingjue said, forcing a kind smile on his face. Meng Yao seemed surprised at that.

“Mingjue-xiong, that is very kind of you but-”

“We’ve been waiting for hours, we’d love to join you!” Meng Yao’s friend interrupted him, before introducing himself as Su She. 

As they went in, Mingjue heard Meng Yao hiss something at Su She, who apologized profusely, stating he was just too hungry to wait any longer. Mingjue ignored it though, he did a good deed.

The first part of the meal was quite awkward, Mingjue had no idea why exactly but Zonghui and Meng Yao did not get along. They kept snapping at each other and rolling their eyes when the other said something. Su She mostly sat there in silence, only nodding along to whatever Meng Yao said like some kind of robot while Mingjue just tried to keep the peace. 

As soon as the waiter brought their hot pot, and they could actually start eating the conversation died down a bit. Whenever something was said it was either between Meng Yao and Su She or Zonghui and Mingjue. This wasn’t going too well… He almost regretted inviting them in. He definitely regretted it when Zonghui got a phone call halfway through dinner from his mother and urgently had to leave, leaving Mingjue alone with some people he didn’t really know. 

“Why did you come here with Zonghui tonight?” Meng Yao suddenly asked, only moments after Zonghui left. 

“Huaisang’s class got rescheduled, and alone wouldn’t have been fun”

Meng Yao hummed. “Then why didn’t you ask Xichen?” 

“Because he’s out with his brother” Mingjue said. Meng Yao raised an eyebrow at him, as if to say ‘what about it?’ Sometimes Mingjue forgot not everyone is as close to their siblings as he is, but he didn’t feel like explaining it any more so he didn’t. After a while though, Meng Yao just shrugged and continued eating. It was quiet for a while after that, nobody seemed to know what to say. 

“I don’t mean to be rude”, Meng Yao said, “but I always wonder… What do you and Xichen talk about? You two talk so often and have so little in common, I cannot help but be curious.” His tone sounded so condescending, Mingjue’s grip on his chopsticks tightened. He didn’t even know him? How was he going to decide whether or not Mingjue and Xichen had anything in common or had anything to talk about. 

Before answering, Mingjue decided to eat another piece of lotus root, giving himself time to calm down a bit and formulate an answer. “Many things, actually. Usually we start off telling each other about our day”, Mingjue began. 

“Very domestic”, Su She laughed, after which he winced in pain so softly Mingjue almost didn’t notice.

He ignored it though and continued. “We often talk about our brothers too, and our jobs, we’re mostly just getting to know each other.” 

Meng Yao nodded along as he spoke. “Ah”, he commented, “So nothing too… intellectual, excuse my choice of words” The arrogant smile he gave Mingjue before he called for a waiter and asked for the bill only made it worse 

“What do you mean by that?” Mingjue hissed.

“Oh, I just mean that it’s so different from what Xichen and I speak about usually”, Meng Yao grinned. “Not that I’m surprised” Su She nodded in agreement with a laugh. Mingjue was trying so hard to stay calm and not give this brat a piece of his mind. He had no right calling him stupid, he didn’t even know him? The waiter came back with the bill. “Enjoy it while it lasts.” Meng Yao told Mingjue as he paid. “Dinner is on me, see you tomorrow.” 

Mingjue was still fuming when he got home. He angrily paced through the house for a while, went on a run and even then he was still aggravated. He had asked Zonghui to call him when he could so he could vent, but he hadn’t gotten a reply yet. He thought about calling Huaisang for a moment, but he didn’t want to bother him with his problems right now. He decided to play the game some more, at least there he could give Meng Yao a piece of his mind and nobody would know. 

As he started his computer, his phone buzzed. Someone was calling him. Assuming it was Zonghui, he answered without even looking who it was. He was about to start complaining immediately, luckily he didn’t, as it clearly wasn’t Zonghui at the other side of the line judging from the warm greeting he heard as soon as he answered. 

“Hey”, he whispered, his temper disappearing almost immediately, “how was your evening?”

“Wonderful, thank you for asking”, Xichen chimed, “How was yours? A-Yao said he saw you and Zonghui at the new Haidilao near campus” He sounded a bit strained mentioning Zonghui, did he know Zonghui and Meng Yao didn’t get along? 

“I was supposed to go with Huaisang, but school ruined our plans”, Mingjue explained, “Letting our reservation go would have been a waste”

Xichen agreed with him. “Thank you for getting A-Yao in too, apparently Su She forgot to make an appointment, he’s so forgetful sometimes”, Xichen giggled, had he not, Mingjue probably would’ve gotten mad again at just having to hear about those two again. 

“I couldn’t leave your best friend out in the cold, could I?” Mingjue muttered, opening the game with some harsh clicks.

“A-Yao said he and Su She had a great evening, thank you Mingjue.” 

Mingjue really wanted to punch something. Of course Meng Yao had had a great evening, taunting Mingjue like that. For a moment he wanted to tell Xichen what Meng Yao had told him, how he’d made fun of him. He knew Xichen had no reason to believe him over his friend of several years. All he could do is prove Meng Yao wrong. 

The rest of the conversation with Xichen was casual and light, like all of their conversations. Xichen complained a bit about how shopping with Wangji was absolutely impossible sometimes. After that they just exchanged funny stories about their brothers. He liked how he could just be himself around Xichen, fool around and make jokes. Tell embarrassing stories without being judged. Still, Meng Yao’s words kept ringing in his head. All fun and light but nothing intellectual. 

God, he didn’t even know what Meng Yao meant by that. Did he want them to talk astrophysics or what? Did he expect them to discuss art styles and medieval paintings every conversation? 

He heard Xichen yawn. It was long past his bedtime already and Mingjue always felt bad for keeping him up late. Especially when he knew Xichen had to teach early tomorrow morning. “You should go to bed”, Mingjue said. 

“I am in bed”, Xichen murmured before changing the call to video. The view Mingjue got was one he never wanted to forget. Xichen was bundled up in his sheets, arms wrapped tightly around the plush tiger Mingjue had given him. Cheek squished against the pillow and his hair messy in the cutest way. Mingjue’s heart was surely going to give out. “Turn on your video”, Xichen requested quietly, 

“Promise to go to sleep after I do?” Mingjue asked. Xichen hummed softly, moving around a bit to turn off his nightlight already. 

As he turned on his own video, Xichen smiled widely. “You look handsome”, he whispered, barely loud enough for his phone to pick up on it. 

“You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, Xichen”, Mingjue confessed, which caused Xichen to hide his face in his pillow with an embarrassed groan. “I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow” 

Xichen turned back to the camera, hiding most of his face behind the plushie still. A lock of hair fell into his eyes and Mingjue’s fingers itched to tuck it behind his ears. “If you want to see me tomorrow then you’ll have to stop saying such sappy things”, Xichen complained.

“Then go to sleep, I’ll keep my sappy words for tomorrow”, Mingjue laughed. 

Xichen nodded from behind the plushie. “All right, good night, Mingjue. I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow.”

“Me neither. Sweet dreams, Xichen.”

[inanna-arianna]

Another meta on Lan Xichen I did not want to write

Never once does the novel state that LXC was romantically even interested in JGY. And here is why the people who ship JGY and LXC are the most tedious, annoying and delusional part of not just MDZS but MXTX works in general.

It’s their insidious and tenacious twisting of information and pushing of their headcanons as legitimate narrative. The best example of this is the wiki page for MDZS outside of tumblr. Twitter is not as infested as tumblr is. Twitter favors NieLan pairing, it would seem. But those who ship NieLan do not try to pass their ship as canon nor do they shove it down everyone’s throats. Ship all you want, but once you start adding your headcanons to profile pages that are supposed to be an objective analysis of the character profiles and source materials, that is where you become a delusional menace.

Author even went as far as to state that the only gay couple in the novel is WangXian. Why would she be coy? Why would she hide? She has written novels with more than one homosexual couples before.

To the delusional shippers LXC has gone into seclusion to repent for the killing of JGY. They even twist his seclusion to such a level that they insidiously add LXC seclusion to be the same as his father’s. Even adding it to the list of clearly romantic acts of passion such as here:

this is sadly just one of many pages they infected

I don’t think people give LXC’s dimwitted naivety the full credit it deserves. I get it, people are fond of his character. He is one of my favorite characters also. But he is not benign.

His idiocy has come with a terrible price.

Siege of Burial mounds? Against a broken man and a group of farmers who were non-combative? The siege came to their doors. WWX had the right to raise the dead to defend them. Ultimately, had LXC been a competent clan leader and had his clan stood for what they say they do: righteousness and justice, WWX would not have been as desperate as to resort to such horrible cultivation practices. Had the Lan clan been what they pride themselves at being, they would have stood on Wei Wuxian’s side. And don’t try to oversimplify it. I’m not talking just about the siege. I’m talking about the build up to it as well. But Wei Wuxian stood alone. He stood alone at the path where they failed to assassinate him. He stood alone at Nevernight. He stood alone at the siege. But the snow white boots of the righteous Lan clan, stomped the skulls of old women and frail men.

Nie Mingjue’s death is on LXC’s hands more than JGY. You don’t blame a tiger for being a tiger. It does what it was made to do. Nie Mingjue trusted Lan Xichen. Painfully so. And it cost him his life. It was LXC constantly making excuses for JGY and shielding him from criticism and consequences that allowed him to get away with all the evil he has done for so, so very long. JGY carefully and meticulously build the image Lan Xichen had of him. I don’t deny that LXC was a victim of JGY. Perhaps the most tragic victim. But it does not absolve him of his crimes and playing a part. Weather out of his dimwitted naivety or moral cowardliness, does not matter. JGY needed Lan Xichen. He needed him to be his moral guarantor, his warranty, his shield and advocate. He used LXC’s impeccable reputation as a shield. He needed LXC to vouch for him.

That is why he never mistreated Lan Xichen.

But it’s not exactly true, right? I don’t doubt that JGY in this cruelty and arrogance and lust for power truly believed that he never mistreated LXC. But that is just not true. Weather the suffering of the person Lan Xichen loved most in the world, his own brother. Or by having LXC be his unwitting accomplice in his crimes. Nie Huaisang used LXC to deliver a final blow to JGY. But JGY was a villain. JGY’s fans want to condemn Nie Huaisang for that one act but gleefully ignore just how much damage JGY has done to LXC by using him to further his own ambitions. A man that now has to live with the consequences of his naivety and blindness.

Lan Xichen spending time in seclusion is coming to terms with what he has allowed to happen by continuously absolving JGY of his crimes and willfully turning a blind eye to his wrongdoings. Do people seriously believe that a man who is the head of a clan that prides itself on righteousness and intolerance of all evil is going into mourning for the death of a villain than rather to repent for being the guarantor that allowed the said villain to go unchallenged for so long? That his reputation was used as a cover that allowed a murderer to go unpunished.

Before those shippers try to point out how LXC was hiding JGY’s crimes and avoiding reveling them out of romantic interest: Don’t try it. LXC was naïve and non-confrontational on all fronts. He stood by and watched the mistreatment of Wen civilians, elderly and disabled and even children. His greatest love is his brother, yet despite being the head of the clan he stood by and watched his brother be viciously beaten and scared for life. Even refusing to know why his gentle and kind mother would murder someone is part of his refusal to even think and dwell on things that displease or hurt him. He is an incredibly passive and lethargic person.

Even his demeanor, gentle smile and voice are a shield against aggression. Author herself has stated that when drunk his voice becomes more booming, deeper. It’s a common tactic to defuse aggression. He puts on a submissive stance. Gentle voice and smile, non-aggressive and non-threatening gestures. But even he snaps from time to time. Like he did with WWX. But ultimately he is someone who avoids confrontation and pushes all that is too hurtful for him to think about out of his mind. Even if it is his own mother and her pitiful destiny, even if it is the brutal beating of his own bother. So no, he was not hiding JGY crimes out of love or romantic interest.

Do not forget, when confronted with the facts: he sided against JGY. Immediately. He sided with his brother. He sided with the man who is possibly the only man in the world that he hates (or as close to hate as LXC can muster). LWJ one mistake in his own eyes. He helped them gather evidence against JGY. He hid WWX in Cloud Recesses at great personal risk fully knowing that he was gathering evidence against JGY. He revoked JGY’s access to Cloud Recesses as soon as suspicions rose.

My point is: Ship whatever you want to ship. But don’t insert your headcanons or shipping fantasies into source material or profile pages that are supposed to be objective. Why have I decided to go off this time? Well, I have, so far got 4 people to look into the MDZS fandom and 3 of them were very much confused as to why they could not find a single reference to JGY and LXC “epic romance”. And asked me about it. Every time it was them reading wiki pages maliciously edited by JGY/LXC delusional shippers. I’m not going off at normal shippers. I understand the appeal. Many people like to ship the victim and his/her abuser. Just look at the people who ship Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang. Not that I would ever ship those. But I’m not here to ship-shame. Just for mercy’s sake stop shoving your ship down our throats or try to pass it off as canon. It’s not.

I hate writing metas on LXC. I love his character. I truly do. I relate to him more than many other MXTX characters. He is deeply flawed. A bit dimwitted, lethargic, non-confrontational, but he is well meaning, benevolent, and generous. Whenever I have to write about him I have to unpack things I don’t particularly enjoy pointing out. See, why his character appeals to me. I don’t like thinking about those things so I push them out of my mind. And so I apologies for grammatical errors, to begin with I was short on time. But once again I was irritated into writing a meta on this subject. So I combined many of my metas and rants into this mess.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Do you think you would enjoy writing a fairytale-esque Nielan story? Except, instead of being the scary beast or the fearsome dragon like he usually is, it's Nie Mingjue who gets to be in the heroine/damsel's role. :D

Toxicity - part 1 - ao3

When Nie Mingjue turned sixteen years old, he was alone.

He had taken nothing with him but his saber, Baxia. He had hugged his brother maybe-goodbye, and then he had gone down into the saber tombs to wait to see if this was the year he was going to go insane.

He hoped it wasn’t, of course. They’d lost his father only the year before, murdered by one of their political enemies – poisoned with his own saber, secretly weakened so that it’d shatter in the middle of a night-hunt and coated with some sort of toxin that ate away his brain within a few months. If Nie Mingjue went insane this year, his little brother, Nie Huaisang, would need to step up as the leader of their sect, and he was only eight years old.

(He didn’t have to spend his eighth birthday shivering in the saber tombs that he hadn’t even known existed before that day, clutching a saber he barely knew, in pain and wondering if he was about to die, but then again, Nie Huaisang wasn’t the one who’d been cursed with a body that cultivated three times as well as everybody else but would eventually cause him to lose his mind when he turned some multiple of eight.)

If he didn’t go insane this year, Nie Mingjue would finally accept the role of sect leader officially, and he’d devote himself to making his sect as powerful as he could in the short time he had left to him. He’d been refusing the role so far, purportedly on account of his grief at his father’s death, and everyone had been very understanding – only those closest to him knew the truth. He would have preferred that Nie Huaisang not know, maybe not ever but definitely not so young, but if Nie Mingjue really did go insane this year then Nie Huaisang would have to be sect leader, or at least sect-leader-to-be with their uncle twice removed acting as sect leader until he was old enough to take charge, so he had to know.

He’d cried a lot before Nie Mingjue left, and there wasn’t anything Nie Mingjue could do about it other than spend a bit of his time in the cold saber tomb mentally cursing the ones that did this to him.

It was, he’d been informed, originally meant as a gift.

His parents had had trouble conceiving shortly after their marriage, all their pregnancies ending up as miscarriages, and rather than marry in a concubine his father, hotheaded and reckless, had taken his bride to the mountains to request help from the dragons that sometimes stayed there as they passed through Qinghe on their mysterious business.

There’d been two of them, apparently. One was a celestial dragon, blue and white as a sky at noon and just as noble, five-clawed and smooth-scaled; the other a lowly flood dragon, yellow-bellied and scuttling and stinking of earth – while the ways of dragons were mysterious, Nie Mingjue’s father had confidently asserted that the two of them were sworn brothers in the same way as men, the latter having once saved the life of the former, and that their brotherhood had once included as its chief the proud azure dragon of the east, green of scale and mightier than either of the others.

The celestial dragon had heard their plea and had been delighted to be asked. He had sung them a song of overwhelming might, filling their ears to the point that Nie Mingjue’s mother became half-deaf, and promised them that they would not only bear a child, but that it would be blessed with the strength of the heroes of the ancient days, so as to serve with honor his parents, his sect, his land, his world. He shall be righteous and unyielding, straightforward and upright, the celestial dragon had declared, and then, having exhausted himself in his exertions, had retreated to the top of the mountain to sleep.

The flood dragon had watched the whole proceeding with a pleasant smile on its face, nodding along in interest, but the very moment the celestial dragon had closed its eyes he had said, Let me give you something too and breathed out poisonous fumes that had choked them both nearly to death. With that pleasant smile still firmly on its lips, it had told them a secret: that the celestial dragon had given them a gift, but that all gifts had a price. Their child would be just like the heroes of old, a candle burning too fiercely – doomed to madness that would turn all his strength into destruction, rendered blind and unable to tell apart those he loved from those he hated, turned into a beast that knew nothing but slaughter.

But not to worry, the flood dragon said. While he did not have the strength of the celestial dragon, he had taken a little bit of their life energy and used it and his own poison to lock away the prophesied madness into one year in every eight, so that their child would be able to live free and carefree the rest of the time.

At the time, they had thanked him, but – Nie Mingjue’s mother had been so weakened by the poison that she had not survived his birth, his father rendered vulnerable to his neighbor’s underhanded attack, and far from living free and carefree Nie Mingjue lived instead in terror of his eventual fate, knowing that one day he would go mad in the worst sort of way.

Some gift!

Nie Mingjue spent his sixteenth birthday meditating in the saber tombs, his saber unsheathed on his lap in the likely vain hope that if he really did go insane, he would turn it against himself out of lack of any other enemy to butcher as his ancestors had once done to animals for trade. He remained there for two days and two nights, wracked with terrible gripping pain from the remnants of the flood dragon’s palliative poison, and emerged only once there was no trace of the date left and he had answered all the questions posed to him by the guards set at the door to the tombs to their satisfaction, proving that he hadn’t gone mad and didn’t need to be left inside to either kill himself or slowly starve to death.

His brother was waiting for him by the gate of their home and had thrown himself into his arms, weeping, and Nie Mingjue vowed to himself that he would use the next eight years of his life to let Nie Huaisang live the best life he could give him.

He did the best he could.

Nie Mingjue devoted himself to strengthening his sect, recruiting steadily and devoting all his time to sect matters, putting aside any frivolity; to each one who rose to a level of sufficient strength and trust, Nie Mingjue entrusted the duty of guarding Nie Huaisang, pleading with them that when he died they would put themselves into his shoes, care for him as any elder brother would. He made sure his borders were well-defended and well-stocked, layer after layer of protections in place in the event of external attack, building it so that it could shut tight like a turtle in its shell, hidden behind an implacable wall of iron. To deal with internal threats, he promoted people on the basis of talent, careful not to have either too many old retainers or too many new faces, wanting each group to watch the other to try to forestall the other.

He tried to strengthen Nie Huaisang himself, but he had much less success with that. Terrified as he was of lashing out against his loved ones, Nie Mingjue found himself yielding time and time again to all of Nie Huaisang’s requests, forgiving all his faults and mistakes, the only educational tools left to him being scolding and appeals to Nie Huaisang’s own good sense.

Still, Nie Huaisang grew up clever, if lazy and a mediocre cultivator, and there was darkness in his eyes when he spoke of dragons, a common artistic motif that never appeared in any of his art.

When Nie Mingjue was twenty three and Nie Huaisang fifteen, he sent letters to the reclusive Cloud Recesses, a sect hidden away in the mountains of Gusu that was renowned for its artistic achievements in music and painting as well as swordsmanship, asking for permission for Nie Huaisang to attend lessons that summer. They agreed, leading to a flock of other sects seeking similar permission lest the Nie sect use the opportunity to form an alliance without including them.

Nie Mingjue had only been trying to find a place where Nie Huaisang could learn skills that would suit him well, and also to keep him out of the growing tensions developing with the Wen sect that had killed his father and had made several attempts to kill him, too, that only failed on account of underestimating his cultivation and martial skills – an easy mistake to make, if you didn’t know his story – but having Nie Huaisang befriend the other sect heirs and shining talents of his generation could only help increase his security, so he approved.

When he came to drop Nie Huaisang off, though, he insisted, as regretfully and politely as he could, on hearing about the defenses they had in place.

“If you do not trust us to protect your brother, perhaps you should rethink sending him to us at all,” Lan Qiren said, voice sharp and querulous. He was the sect’s representative – not actually sect leader, but the one who left their reclusive abode to do the external parts of the job normally associated with leadership – and the teacher in charge of the visiting students, and Nie Mingjue did not want to offend him, but he also knew how insidious the Wen sect could be when they wanted. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, unwilling to retract the demand but also not wanting to spoil Nie Huaisang’s visit before it had even begun.

“It is a reasonable request,” said a calm voice that nevertheless carried with it a hint of laughter from behind his back, and Nie Mingjue tensed, not having heard someone approach. “Let me show Sect Leader Nie around, uncle.”

Lan Qiren’s face softened at once, something Nie Mingjue had never seen happen on his face before; he stroked his beard and cleared his throat before nodding, saving face by allowing himself to be persuaded.

Nie Mingjue saluted and bowed deeply, murmuring, “My sincere thanks for your indulgence,” before turning to look at – the most beautiful young man he’d ever seen in his life, actually. Tall and slender, dressed in the Lan sect’s white and blue, with a xiao tucked into his belt and a gentle smile on his face and warmth in his eyes...

Nie Mingjue had to clear his throat himself before saluting him as well, although the young man hummed immediately in disapproval and caught him before he could bow. “Nie Mingjue,” he said. “Of Qinghe Nie. And you are…?”

“Lan Xichen,” the young man said, omitting even his sect affiliation – though that was obvious enough. “Come with me, I’ll show you the main defenses we have set in place, although not all of them, of course.”

“Naturally,” Nie Mingjue hurried to say. “I would never want to pry into your sect’s secrets, Lan-gongzi! It’s only – my younger brother…”

“You’re worried about him,” Lan Xichen said, his smile deepening. “I understand.”

Normally, Nie Mingjue would leave it at that – he was not overly given to speaking with people, but he couldn’t help himself in this case. “He’s all I have in the world,” he admitted. “And I know I can’t protect him forever, or even for very much longer, but…what I can do, I would do.”

“You don’t need to explain, Sect Leader Nie –”

“Please,” Nie Mingjue said gruffly. “Call me by name.”

“Then I insist you call me by mine,” Lan Xichen said.

Nie Mingjue nodded, and they walked in comfortable silence. After a while, he, again uncharacteristically, initiated conversation: “You called Teacher Lan uncle, and he seems especially fond of you, much more than most. Are you directly related?”

“Oh, yes,” Lan Xichen said. “I’m his – ah, his nephew.”

Nie Mingjue frowned. “Really? I thought that was Lan Wangji…?”

“My younger brother,” Lan Xichen said, and he looked so pleased that Nie Mingjue didn’t have it in him to question any further, even though he’d really thought that Lan Wangji was the sole sect heir.

Still, when they came across Lan Wangji himself a little later, he saluted them both and referred to Lan Xichen as ‘xiongzhang’ – formal, but then again, Lan Wangji was very formal in all things – with a minute change of expression that suggested adoration, even awe, and so Nie Mingjue told himself that perhaps he had been mistaken. Or perhaps he had simply misunderstood, perhaps Lan Wangji was only the acting sect heir for external affairs, in the same way that Lan Qiren was, or maybe Lan Xichen had simply been exempted from the line of inheritance for whatever reason…

Either way, it wasn’t really his business.

He certainly wasn’t going to bring it up in front of Lan Xichen, with whom he unexpectedly got along splendidly – the conversation flowed easily, ranging over all sorts of subjects, and Nie Mingjue felt comfortable as if he’d known the other man for years.

“We must have been brothers in a past life,” he told Lan Xichen, and noticed the way Lan Xichen’s eyes grew briefly distant and dim, a little sad.

“We must have been,” he agreed, and clasped Nie Mingjue’s hands in his. “Regardless, I do not have words to express how much joy it brings me to meet you again in this life, my friend.”

Nie Mingjue went home feeling as light as air.

He clung onto that feeling throughout his twenty-fourth birthday, when the pangs of the poison wracked his body into horrific spasms, his back arching and arms and legs thrashing and every vein and meridian in his body aching fit to burst; it hurt so much that he thought he really would go insane, but just when he thought it was too much the pain began to fade and he survived.

Still, the experience was a bitter reminder that no matter how much Nie Mingjue’s heart sang and mood brightened at every letter from Lan Xichen, no matter how much he looked forward to discussion conferences as much as he had previously despised them only for the chance to see him, they could never be anything more than friends.

Distant friends, even. Bad enough that he would cause Nie Huaisang so much pain when he died too young – it didn’t seem right to impose friendship on someone else who did not know.

Of course, thinking was one thing and enacting another, and Lan Xichen ignored every attempt he made to try away and put distance between them, visiting whenever he didn’t answer letters and refusing to be dissuaded when he tried to keep his responses curt and uninviting.

“Xichen, please,” Nie Mingjue said one evening, when they had been walking the ramparts in the Unclean Realm, he in his familial green and Lan Xichen in blue but both cast into equal shades of grey in the light of the moon, and he thought he’d never been happier in his life. “You don’t understand – I’m going to die, and you’ll be left behind. How can I do that to you?”

“Even if you died tomorrow, I would be happy to have been your friend today,” Lan Xichen declared, and Nie Mingjue wanted to kiss him more than anything. “Don’t push me away, Mingjue-xiong. Please.”

Nie Mingjue always yielded to those he loved most.

“All right,” he said with a sigh. “All right. Only promise me that you’ll stay safe, and that if – if I ever turn on you, or threaten you –”

“Remember that I can defend myself,” Lan Xichen said with a laugh. “Better than you might think. You aren’t nearly as bad at controlling your temper as you think, Mingjue-xiong.”

Nie Mingjue couldn’t explain more without explaining it all, and he didn’t want Lan Xichen to pity him, so he didn’t. They parted on good terms, with Nie Mingjue promising to return each correspondence as soon as he received them this time, and to let Lan Xichen know if he got any more “stupid ideas” from which he needed to be dissuaded.

The next letter arrived in the hands of a young man with a pleasant smile who introduced himself as Meng Yao.

“Xichen-xiong said that you valued talent and recognized merit,” he said. “I thought I might prevail on his recommendation, if you have room…?”

Nie Mingjue thought to himself with a smile that Lan Xichen had sent him a babysitter, and agreed to accept Meng Yao as a guest disciple. It didn’t take long to realize that Lan Xichen had sent him a treasure, brilliant at organizing and personnel management, wise beyond his years, and while he didn’t want to embarrass his friend by thanking him directly, he made sure to speak very highly of Meng Yao in all his letters.  Lan Xichen responded warmly, saying how happy he was that Nie Mingjue was surrounded by people he trusted who supported him, and Nie Mingjue thought to himself with satisfaction that his message had been understood.

[vespertineflora]

I wrote something for NieLan Month! Day 22: Desperation/Beauty/Awe. This is mostly for Desperation, but the other themes sort of fit too :)

This is also......... the 69th fic I’ve uploaded to AO3 in the eight-ish years of having my account, and that.......................... was a huge inspiration for the contents of this fic :)

Rating: E Summary:  Lan Huan and Nie Mingjue have been dating for almost two years now, but Nie Mingjue is always coming up with ways for him and his beau to have some new sort of fun in the bedroom. (3.7k, modern AU, pure pwp)

~

“You’re sure?”

Nie Mingjue laughed softly, his hands stroking up Lan Huan’s thighs and settling on his hips. They gave him a reassuring squeeze, but didn’t tug, didn’t coerce.

“A-Huan,” he coaxed sweetly, “is this the face of a man who isn’t sure?”

Lan Huan’s head was already turned over his shoulder, his eyes already magnetically drawn to the smile on Nie Mingjue’s handsome face that somehow made it even more so. As Nie Mingjue had so kindly pointed out, it was anything but the face of a man who wasn’t sure what he was asking for.

“Okay,” Lan Huan said with a huff of laughter. His pulse was already fluttering, his arousal already half-hard. They’d spent the better part of the last hour making out, gasping heavy breaths against each other’s lips, bodies pressed together, rubbing up against each other heatedly without letting their hands stray too much. They both knew what they were working towards, what Nie Mingjue had suggested the day before, but Lan Huan was a little nervous. He usually was before trying something new, but... he thought it was particularly fair to be nervous when he was half-afraid he might suffocate his boyfriend.

Lan Huan was committed, though, and he wasn’t in the habit of denying Nie Mingjue, anyway--mostly because Nie Mingjue only suggested activities they would both enjoy, and Lan Huan had long since come to trust Nie Mingjue’s judgment on such matters. If Nie Mingjue wanted this, Lan Huan would indulge him.

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