#for this one I’m hc’ing Nielan as roommates/best friends

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

Request (from this post):

@ebbster2012 suggested: Modern 3zun where Nie Mingjue or Lan Xichen head hunts Meng Yao from his dad’s company. Seducing him away with competence, respect, and sex appeal. (Also posted to Ao3)

I’ll make the disclaimer again that corporate stuff is very much outside of my area of expertise so I’m sorry if I didn’t go into as much detail as the prompt deserves 😅 I genuinely had to google what head hunting was to make sure I was thinking of the right thing. But anyway, hope you like it, thanks for the prompt! ^_^

--

“Incredible work as always, A-Yao,” Lan Xichen praises, suffusing his voice with as much warmth as he’s capable of - and he’s capable of quite a bit. It’s difficult to make Jin Guangyao blush, he’s discovered over the years of their acquaintance, but not impossible. Never impossible.

“Lan-gege is too kind,” Jin Guangyao replies with a sweet smile and Lan Xichen has to admit defeat - his punishment for making his companion blush is to be made to blush in return - a punishment he'll happily submit to. As soon as Jin Guangyao breaks out the dimples and wide, limpid eyes he’s done for. He distracts himself long enough to become more composed by straightening out the papers Jin Guangyao had brought for him despite the fact that they’re already neatly arranged in their perfectly labelled folder.

When he feels he can talk again without embarrassing himself, he says, “There’s no such thing as too kind, and I’m certainly not being too kind now. The work you do for us is invaluable, I hope you know how much I appreciate you.”

“Yes, Lan-gege, you tell me every time we have these meetings.” Jin Guangyao’s amusement is palpable but all Lan Xichen does to show he hears the teasing is offer him his usual soft smile.

“And I shall continue to tell you every single time I’m grateful for what you do.”

“It’s my job, you don’t have to thank me.”

“Mm. May I ask a somewhat unprofessional question?”

“Of course.”

“Does Nie Mingjue thank you as well?”

That question earns him a new expression - pursed lips and narrowed eyes as Jin Guangyao no doubt thinks about how to answer him.

“May I ask why you want to know?”

Lan Xichen raises his hands in surrender with another smile that seems to thaw some of the cold calculation in that gaze.

“I know you also do business with him, I want to make sure he’s treating you properly.”

Jin Guangyao dimples a smile at him and Lan Xichen is, as always, instantly charmed nearly into forgetting what they were talking about in the first place.

“Lan-gege is so considerate, so thoughtful. My interactions with Nie Mingjue are satisfactory. Is there anything else today, Mr Lan?”

The abrupt switch to a much more professional tone for the last question leaves Lan Xichen blinking slightly in surprise but he recovers quickly with a hum and another smile. He smiles at everyone (a lot, Nie Mingjue has told him multiple times that he finds it weird) but Jin Guangyao gets his own special smiles.

“Only what I always end with. We’re looking for -“

“A new head of your financial department, yes Lan-gege,” Jin Guangyao cuts in with another demure smile. He pairs it with an absolutely devastating doe-eyed glance through his lashes that makes Lan Xichen feel a touch too warm under the collar of his shirt - a familiar sensation when dealing with Jin Guangyao and his charms. “And I will say as I always do that I’m not currently looking for a change but I’ll keep it in mind should I ever need to.”

“Alright, then I suppose that’s all for this week. Unless you have anything else?”

“I actually do have something - it’s..equally unprofessional.”

“Oh? Please, feel free.”

Lan Xichen stays seated when Jin Guangyao stands but gestures for him not to get up with him. He stays still as the man steps around his desk to lean the backs of his thighs against the edge, hands linked in front of his hips as he smiles that charming smile again. This close, without the desk as a barrier between them, he’s practically intoxicating.

“Nie da-ge includes dinner invitations with his attempts to recruit me. Lan-gege will have to try a little harder,” he says with a sweet smile and Lan Xichen laughs - that is to say he closes his eyes and smiles with a slight shake of his head.

He opens his eyes again when he hears Jin Guangyao move but he otherwise stays still as the man runs one delicate hand along his shoulder, across his chest, and up the side of his neck to cup his cheek and turn his head towards him. They lock eyes and Lan Xichen knows that if he were standing his knees would be weak as Jin Guangyao smirks down at him.

“I’ll see you next week,” Jin Guangyao says breezily with a couple of pats to his cheek and then he’s gone, leaving behind nothing more than the faintest hint of his cologne in the air and the lingering feeling of his hand on Lan Xichen’s cheek.

Lan Xichen sits there in the quiet for a few long moments, just breathing slowly and reveling in the contentment and satisfaction that always sings through him during and after a meeting with Jin Guangyao. After 10 minutes or so of that, though, he pulls his phone from its drawer in his desk to open up his text thread with Nie Mingjue.

Me:

You invite A-Yao out to dinner,

Mingjue? That’s cheating!

The response comes right away, much to Lan Xichen’s amusement.

Mingjue:

It’s not cheating, it’s perfectly standard procedure

to include an invitation for a meal with offers of

recruitment interviews. We said no asking him

out on dates, we didn’t say no business-

oriented, completely professional meals that just

happen to be at very nice restaurants.

Me:

It’s supposed to be lunch! Cheating, Mingjue,

so shameless. And you didn’t tell me :(

Unfair advantages are definitely cheating!

Mingjue:

How did you even find out, by the way?

Me:

A-Yao just told me before he left my office.

Does he ever accept?

Mingjue:

Every time.

Me:

And he still won’t let you recruit him?

Mingjue:

Nope.

Me:

Interesting.

Well I suppose the only thing for it is to

also start inviting him on outings that are

definitely not dates. It’s only fair.

Mingjue:

Hey. Do you ever get the feeling that

he’s just playing with us?

Me:

Perhaps. Is that a bad thing? If you don’t

like it you can bow out now and

I certainly won’t judge you, Mingjue.

Mingjue:

Nice try, Xichen.

Me:

Worth a shot. He has his meeting with

you tomorrow, right?

Mingjue:

He does, and I’m going to offer to take him out to

that new upscale Vietnamese place Huaisang likes.

Me:

I’ll make sure to choose somewhere else for

my dinner with him, then.

Mingjue:

Do you think he’ll ever actually leave Jin Guangshan?

We already know the man’s a conniving motherfucker.

What if he’s done something to make sure A-Yao doesn’t

ever go anywhere else?

Me:

Then we’ll just have to keep trying, and continue

making sure he knows we appreciate him.

Mingjue:

Oh alright fine. Kidnapping him is

out of the question though?

Me:

Unfortunately so.

Mingjue:

Damn. He ever give you that look through his eyelashes

that makes you want to bundle him up and

hold him for at least a few hours?

Me:

Yes.

Frequently.

Mingjue:

See?! He’s not playing fair either! Nice dinners are the

least I can do after he looks at me like that.

Me:

I have to concede that point. I also need to

return to work, unfortunately.

Mingjue:

Alright, I’ll see you tonight. Take-out

sushi for dinner?

Me:

Sounds lovely.

Lan Xichen sighs to himself and returns the phone to the drawer with a sardonic little smile on his lips. Trust Nie Mingjue to bully his way through the rules of their little game and do what he wants to do anyway. Well - if he’s going to hit on Jin Guangyao then Lan Xichen is going to stop being quite so reticent with his own attempts. Besides, if one of them wins this bet then they both win, technically, as the ultimate goal is to get Jin Guangyao somewhere he’s properly valued and treated well - it doesn’t really matter which company he ends up choosing.

In the end, though, he doesn’t choose either of them. Or - perhaps a slightly more accurate way to put it is that he chooses both of them, just not in any way they could have anticipated.

Lan Xichen claims that he technically won the bet because Jin Guangyao came to him first with the plans to start his own financial company and asked the Lan corporation to be his first major client. Nie Mingjue claims that he won because he had been the one to suggest the company in the first place over one of his and Jin Guangyao’s weekly dinners. Jin Guangyao claims he beat them both because he foiled their plans to steal him into either one of their companies, because it was his idea to use the money from successfully suing his father to fund it, and because he picked up two boyfriends out of the deal without having to worry about creating a headache for either the Nie or Lan corporations’ HR team to deal with.

“A-Yao makes a good point, Mingjue,” Lan Xichen sighs when Jin Guangyao finishes stating as much, practically radiating smug satisfaction, and Nie Mingjue’s grumpy, nonverbal acquiescence is really its own reward.

“Don’t grunt, da-ge, I haven’t worn you out that much yet tonight. Use your words,” Jin Guangyao chastises and Lan Xichen just barely lifts his head to watch him swat at Nie Mingjue’s bare hip.

“A-Yao makes a good point,” Nie Mingjue dutifully parrots around a yawn and Lan Xichen hides his laugh in the crook of Jin Guangyao’s neck.

“Mm.” Jin Guangyao sounds ridiculously satisfied with himself as he slides his arms around the two men laying in bed on either side of him. “Perfect.”