#ruenwrites

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Shen Qingqiu marries a dead man.

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(JiuYuan Ghost/Cultivator AU. NaNoWriMo 2023)

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So curious about the Hybrid AU! Is anyone else going to show up in the story? Are there anymore hybrid characters?

Ahhh thank you so much! While JiuYuan will be the main focus, I do have three other hybrids/pairs in mind!

The first is good old Yue Qingyuan who is a loyal doggo hybrid. He's mostly in this AU as moral support for Shen Jiu. They were raised together in the same facility until he was adopted out at age 12. He was put up for adoption again when that family could no longer keep him, and he ended up with Mu Qingfang, a doctor that later tends to Shen Jiu and helps them reconnect.

Then we have another tomcat, Mobei Jun!

He will feature in the AU a bit more, as Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan work closely together. He's also one of the few hybrids Shen Yuan knows personally so often asks him for advice when dealing with Shen Jiu's trust issues. His own story isn't too different from Shen Jiu's, as he was adopted and raised by a man he called Uncle, until he learned he was just there as an expendable object, rather than part of a family. He broke free and was found wounded, then brought to a clinic. Shang Qinghua happened to be there at the time, having fallen while ice skating and spraining his wrist. He ends up adopting Mobei Jun to help cover medical costs and they end up falling in love after a year or so. They are now "engaged" even though legally humans and hybrids cannot get married (yet).

And finally, we have the hooligan that actually started all of this! Luo Binghe, the Himalayan lop rabbit!

Before this AU was JiuYuan, it was a BingLiu. In this universe, rabbit hybrids are more prized for their beauty and sexual stamina than anything else. Nicknamed Playboy Bunnies, they are made to have higher libido and delicate features. Naturally, Luo Binghe learns very quickly that he can control others by how well he performs in bed, and how well he can seduce. Enter Liu Qingge by some convulted means, who doesn't react to the seduction. Like, at all.

Liu Qingge is an underground fighter in debt to the mob, though he doesn't outright tell Luo Binghe this as they move in together. Luo Binghe assumes the bruises are from an abusive partner, but the more he tries to show he's a better sexual companion, the less ground he makes. This story was about Luo Binghe learning what it means to make a true connection to someone, and the difference between seducing someone and actually loving them. All very sweet haha. I'm not sure if these two will show up in the story as it is right now, but I wanted to explain it anyway as the JiuYuan story wouldn't exist without BingLiu getting into my head first!

Thank you again for your interest! Hope this made sense lol!

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Was just skimming through the Jiang Cheng/Lan Wangji ao3 tag and got excited when I realized you had written for another of my ships!! I’ll probably binge read them all back to back, but I warn you, I foresee artwork🔮

Ahhhh thank you. I don't know how many survived on the site tho, so fair warning! I took a couple down due to bad interactions with fandom. But thank you sweetheart. that is so so nice of you ;v; <333 ZhanCheng is such a great ship ahhhhh

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Just discovered you're the one that wrote Tiger of Hu among other fics ( Across the stars holds a special bit inside my heart ) and like holy shit ??? Your writing is really inspiring ? It's so interesting and the characters grow and interact in such an organic way, how it's so easy and clear to understand them and connect while still maintaining the immersion of them being individuals rather than "only characters" in a story and also the descriptions and the tones you set for each scenario are so delicately and yet solidly set that you can't help but feel as if you're completely surrounded by the story ? Your balance of showing this clear and precise view of everything while never coming across as an over explanation and breaking the immersion is something I can't put in words ? Just as cliche as this sounds if any were to be a book it wouldn't be strange to find it's pages bustling with warmth, living and breathing with how alive you made it

And that's all ! I'm very sorry if this makes you uncomfortable you can ignore it !!! Just all in all a big fan of your projects 10 out of 10 I have already made most of my friends read it at least once

Oh wow, what a sweet message to come here to ahhh ;v;

First of all, I want to say thank you for reading my stories. I'm so glad they bring you joy. That's one of my main goals as a writer, that connection with others. I write what I want because it's fun, but I want to share that joy. I'm glad that joy reached you. I'm glad something so simple made you smile!

Secondly, thank you for the sweet words! I have been writing fanfiction since I was a young teen, which has been more than half my life. A lot of what you mentioned has been things I've had to learn how to do, and I'm glad I can do them well enough for you! Writing is a constant progression, and Tiger of Hu was a labor of love and so much joy to me. Thank you so much for seeing worth in that. I really do appreciate you and everyone else that has taken the time to read. Comments like this are such a great confirmation to us. It's so easy to put out a work into the world and feel like you're only reaching a void. Tiger of Hu found you, and for that I'm so happy that not only did you read it, but you liked it enough to come back to. Just blows my mind, truly. Thank you.

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Day Three: Love - Space AU

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Bad Habits

I’ll admit I have a fondness for Meng Yao / Xue Yang. Have a drabble.

Modern/Mafia!AU, 1732 words, uncomfy feels and introspection ahead.

Logically, he knew how this had started. Even without a mind that could remember minuscule details with acute clarity, it would be far too impossible to forget his first real impression of Xue Yang. The man was a notorious assassin on call, no allegiance except where the most fun was. One didn’t spend his days cleaning up messes in the underground and not hear about the infamous candy killer at least a dozen times and Meng Yao was nothing if not meticulous in both his cleaning and his ability to eavesdrop.

Xue Yang had been sent there to kill him, which was hardly a surprise in his line of work. Xue Yang had decided at the last minute that the thugs who’d unwisely jumped Meng Yao first were more fun to kill than Meng Yao himself, also not really much of a surprise. If it came to one target versus seven, it stood to reason that more bodies and more blood would be the bigger draw. 

The only surprise, really, had been when the dust had settled and Xue Yang had collapsed.

Even serial assassins weren’t immune to poisoned knives, it seemed.

Logic had gotten Xue Yang into Meng Yao’s apartment. After all, despite Xue Yang’s questionable moral code, he was in the end far too simple a man for Meng Yao to misunderstand. He wanted to have fun, hated being bored, and was damn good at what he did. Such a dog at his heel was no small thing in the world of his father’s gang, and Meng Yao had felt confident that he cold keep Xue Yang entertained enough to build some kind of rapport. Xue Yang didn’t get attached often, but when he did he tended to show a weird sort of loyalty, and that was usable too.

But that is where the logic became skewed. Shooting Xue Yang up with antivenom and giving him around the clock care to keep him alive should not have allowed him to notice how dark Xue Yang’s eyes were, or how he seemed utterly captivated by Meng Yao whenever their gazes locked. Had the man never had a gentle touch, he remembered wondering before it all went sideways. He’d learned after that, yes, in fact, Xue Yang was not used to gentle, or kindness over ulterior motives.

Meng Yao held no illusions. He knew Xue Yang understood exactly what this was. Xue Yang, for all his bloodthirsty habits, was not an idiot by any stretch. A simple man in a world of lying fools, but not a dumb one. He was clever enough to know when someone was playing a game with him and he seemed to enjoy watching Meng Yao try to essentially woo him to his services by offering more bodies, blood, and favors.

Meng Yao had not been expecting how blatantly blunt and honest Xue Yang was. Perhaps it was because honesty brought a connotation to it of good and upright, two things no one could ever accuse Xue Yang of being. But still, though he could lie as well as Meng Yao himself, he found there wasn’t much point to it, not when the truth hurt so much more. His motives were obvious, his desires plain. Far too plain.

Logically, Meng Yao knew how Xue Yang had been allowed close enough for this, but just how the weasel had wormed so far had taken Meng Yao utterly off guard. Somehow, wooing this killer had turned into… not actual wooing, Meng Yao could at least say he wasn’t in love with the odd man, and Xue Yang was not in love with him, but there was… something there. Something between them that was twisted and surprising and somehow uncomplicated even if it brought a mess of feelings to the fore that made it impossible to identify. Pity, perhaps? Curiosity? 

Base attraction wasn’t something Meng Yao had allowed himself to fall into. It was too illogical to fall into bed with essentially a stranger. To let someone that close was dangerous and sex could always be used as a weapon under any circumstance. Meng Yao, for all his own twisted morals and lifestyle, had always desired a connection in the deepest, most hidden parts of himself. To just give into a night of sex over and over again was just not what he did. And yet it’s what happened. 

There were times, sometimes, in the after, when Meng Yao wondered if he was the only one craving connection, craving someone who saw all of him and didn’t give a damn. Xue Yang was no fool to who Meng Yao was, or what Meng Yao had done, and yet in the breathless darkness of sticky sweat and still too quick heartbeats, Xue Yang would linger, pet him with something like softness and a lot like wonder, looking dazzled and dark in his rumpled state.

Meng Yao couldn’t deny there was freedom here. Not in the sex itself exactly, which he decided was stress relief and no holds barred, a way to let go with someone just as demented by the world as he was, and in many ways fun in its simplicity. It felt good, it brought release. Fine.

But after? With Xue Yang’s eyes almost guileless in the dark, satisfied and smug but with a faint quake in his hands when they touched him so quietly, so unashamedly… there was nothing simple about that, or the way his heart ached to see it. Knowing Xue Yang was capable of gentleness was a disquieting thought. He was a monster, but he was also young. A murderer, a beast, and yet, somehow, still a man. A lonely man, perhaps.

Bad habits had a way of being mirrors, for they only showed one’s failings. Meng Yao just hadn’t expected Xue Yang to be a mirror to himself, and an uncomfortably close one at that. He didn’t appreciate the thoughts. In many ways, they disturbed him enough to build resolve. He hated that he could not say no to Xue Yang, not when his mouth was so quick and his eyes so open. He hated that, somewhere, he’d lost control of this and just could not seem to stop.

It’d be easy to logic it as making these moments of connection a weapon. It was still sex, and the fact Xue Yang hadn’t used it yet to blackmail him was a poor decision on his part. It gave Meng Yao a chance to turn this back around, something to dangle in front of Xue Yang to entice him into jobs or whatever else Meng Yao wanted. Xue Yang would play the game as long as Meng Yao kept it fun, and surely it was fun that continually brought Xue Yang to his bed time and time again. Nothing else made sense. 

But like any bad habit, Xue Yang was hard to get a grip on. Maybe it was fun that led to his - unfortunately - successful seductions, but this? How was lying here so uncomfortably close fun for the man?

Xue Yang’s hand was on his back, tonight, tracing bites and bruises he’d left. There was always smugness with him, but never softness except in these moments, and to Meng Yao’s dismay, it was there again. He looked pleased, but also awestruck, like he couldn’t believe Meng Yao had allowed him to so thoroughly mark him in such a way. A fair thought given Meng Yao couldn’t believe it either.

His wounds had long healed, the poison long gone, and the scar on his left bicep puffy but pale. It was a reminder of just how far Meng Yao had fallen into this, that they no longer had the excuse of proximity and care to justify the desperation behind their kisses, or the pressure under their clutching hands. Meng Yao’s body ached like Xue Yang had been determined to push every pleasurable feeling into him at once until he burst, chasing something Meng Yao never wanted to understand.

And it wasn’t as though Xue Yang’s body wasn’t just as marked. Meng Yao never thought of himself as someone who would enjoy leaving reminders of himself behind on someone, but he couldn’t deny the dark satisfaction in his heart as he watched Xue Yang explore him covered in the bruised ghosts of kisses and bites.

“What are you looking at?” Meng Yao finally asked, for once too tired and wrung through to stop himself from asking. The last hold out, he really was a goner.

Xue Yang hummed in thought, his palm sliding into the dip of Meng Yaos’ spine, making him shiver at the feeling of cooling sweat being disturbed by a hot palm. Gross, and yet it was theirs. 

“You,” was his answer. Playful, too honest, too awed. Meng Yao didn’t like it or how it made that feeling he couldn’t name in his chest pang like he was grieving. What, he didn’t know, but the dread and pain felt the same. 

“What about me?” He tried for short, but it sounded too breathless to his own ears. A weakness, easily exploited. Xue Yang’s grin was lazy and toothy and Meng Yao tensed, waiting for the ax to fall, but when it came, it came under soft lips to his shoulder, a hand catching his sore hip, a body molding to his side.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Xue Yang, ever childish, told him bluntly, as content as a cat that had finally caught a bird mid-flight.

Meng Yao hated how his heart swelled at the challenge, because it meant this was going to happen again, inevitable, and maybe he’d learned how to play Xue Yang, but it seemed Xue Yang had found a way to play him right back. Dangerous. Unacceptable. 

“I will,” he said back, stubborn with promise, and closed his eyes as Xue Yang just laughed into his hair, the sound boyish and full of true delight. Such a man should not be able to laugh like that, Meng Yao thought. Not like his inner child had not been slaughtered by this world that had shaped them. He knew it had, which is why he supposed it hurt so much to hear, but still Xue Yang laughed at the world, at Meng Yao, at himself, unrepentant.

It was not in their nature to be sorry, anyway. 

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Shen Yuan may or may not be getting a crush on the very pretty man at his gym. The problem? Pretty Man is constantly covered in bruises, seems withdrawn, and is clearly in distress. Shen Yuan may not be a cheesy romance hero, but he can still offer the guy a safe place to live, right? Right.

Basically Shen Yuan brings home Liu Qingge thinking he's in an abusive relationship, when in fact he's actually an underground fighter. Mutual pining, gentle first aid, and roommate shenanigans ensue.

LiuShen Week 2021 BABY Day 2 is UP :D

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Shen Yuan may or may not be getting a crush on the very pretty man at his gym. The problem? Pretty Man is constantly covered in bruises, seems withdrawn, and is clearly in distress. Shen Yuan may not be a cheesy romance hero, but he can still offer the guy a safe place to live, right? Right.

Basically Shen Yuan brings home Liu Qingge thinking he's in an abusive relationship, when in fact he's actually an underground fighter. Mutual pining, gentle first aid, and roommate shenanigans ensue.

LiuShen Week 2021 BABY :D Day one up!

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Shen Yuan may or may not be getting a crush on the very pretty man at his gym. The problem? Pretty Man is constantly covered in bruises, seems withdrawn, and is clearly in distress. Shen Yuan may not be a cheesy romance hero, but he can still offer the guy a safe place to live, right? Right.

Basically Shen Yuan brings home Liu Qingge thinking he's in an abusive relationship, when in fact he's actually an underground fighter. Mutual pining, gentle first aid, and roommate shenanigans ensue.

LiuShen Week 2021 BABY final day ;v; <3

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Shen Yuan may or may not be getting a crush on the very pretty man at his gym. The problem? Pretty Man is constantly covered in bruises, seems withdrawn, and is clearly in distress. Shen Yuan may not be a cheesy romance hero, but he can still offer the guy a safe place to live, right? Right.

Basically Shen Yuan brings home Liu Qingge thinking he's in an abusive relationship, when in fact he's actually an underground fighter. Mutual pining, gentle first aid, and roommate shenanigans ensue.

LiuShen Week 2021 BABY Day 6 is UP

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“Why did you curtsy?” was the question he was asked. “And why are you in a dress?”

The logical answer was to lie. Lady Chu Hua wanted to pass him off as a girl and into a woman as he grew up, to traverse the court as a yiji in many layers of mystery, many of which she’d yet to disclose to him. But the shock that this boy could see through his dress and girly braids made his heart stammer to a halt and his mind go blank.

“You… can see me?”

Shen Qingqiu giggled, his sleeve covering up his sweet, curving mouth. “Of course I can!” he said with great confidence and patted his shoulder like a teacher would a young student. “You’re a boy, but you’re being a girl. Do you like being a girl? You seemed mad about it before.”

Liu Qingge was too shocked to answer for a beat too long. The idea that someone could see him so easily through this… he blushed all over again. “No, I… it’s my job?”

“Well, it’s a funny job,” Shen Qingqiu decided for them both then giggled again.

an AU in which Liu Qingge loses everything when he becomes a yiji in training, is sent to the Imperial Court, and meets an old acquaintance.

a little LiuShen story

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Shen Yuan may or may not be getting a crush on the very pretty man at his gym. The problem? Pretty Man is constantly covered in bruises, seems withdrawn, and is clearly in distress. Shen Yuan may not be a cheesy romance hero, but he can still offer the guy a safe place to live, right? Right.

Basically Shen Yuan brings home Liu Qingge thinking he's in an abusive relationship, when in fact he's actually an underground fighter. Mutual pining, gentle first aid, and roommate shenanigans ensue.

LiuShen Week 2021 BABY :D Day 3 up!

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Day Two: Understanding | Political Marriage AU

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o(≧∇≦o)

another sleep deprivation prompt!!! for rencheng!!! "What? Sorry, I'm having trouble focusing..."

Thank you! sorry for the delay, life got a little crazy!

From this prompt list and from this RenCheng AU :)

He could still hear her laughter, some days. Everytime he sat too straight, poured his tea too perfectly, she was there to chide him in his mind. Lan-xiong, so strict! Lan-xiong, so perfect!

While he could say with true honesty that he hadn’t fallen in love with Cangse Sanren the same way Jiang Fengmian had, a part of his heart still fully belonged to her. Which wasn’t too uncommon. Despite her carefree, chaotic nature, she had been beautiful and bright, and nearly everyone that she’d met had fallen in love with her to some degree - a sentiment that, no doubt, would have amused her greatly.

There had been a time that she’d been the bane of his existence. She was everything he wasn’t, everything he’d been taught was incorrect. She was wild and mischievous, unafraid to speak her mind. She laughed often and loudly and started duels because she could. Knowing now that feelings had formed for her explained some of his early reactions, his quick anger and frustration. 

She always had left him flustered, not only with her forwardness, but also her depth of kindness and understanding. Even when he had nearly gotten her and Jiang Fengmian killed, she had forgiven him. And sure, it had resulted in the loss of his goatee, but their friendship had been strong and forthright forever on, and even now touched his heart in ways not much did.

He felt, most days, like his heart was a house built of different rooms. One room was for his nephews, large and important. One was for his friends and family, whom he guarded like treasure. One was for Cangse Sanren and all other friends he had lost along the way. And one for-

“Shufu?” Lan Xichen asked, and by his tone he had been saying it for a little while. Lan Qiren blinked out of his stupor and realized he’d been stroking his beard, giving the illusion of deep thought. Judging by the concern on his nephew’s face, he must be quite the sight, frowning and thinking in his sleep clothes. He’d just awoken from his rest and lost himself to thoughts, which he never did. No doubt, Lan Xichen was ready to call for Wangji at the first sign of illness in a panic.

The thought made him smile, which probably helped nothing. “Forgive me, Xichen,” he murmured, trying to find some of that containment he was so known for. But he was soft today, lost in memories of a golden time. For they truly were tinted gold, those days where he and Jiang Fengmian had been pulled by their sashes after a laughing Cangse Sanren, who promised adventure and no end of trouble. “I did not hear you.”

Every memory he had in each locked room of his heart was colored differently. For his nephews, it was a somber, beautiful blue, and sometimes he could almost imagine the world actually tinted so when he was with them.

“I simply remarked on how long you slept, shufu,” Lan Xichen said with a smile that let Lan Qiren know he’d worried him. “And that I hope you are feeling better.”

Lan Xichen was kinder than the world deserved. Lan Qiren, soft as he was, took in the beloved planes of his face with pride before his eyes flickered down the root of the issue: an untouched cup of tea. Ah, no wonder. 

He took the tea and warmed it back up with a wash of qi, sipping it gratefully. Lan Xichen’s smile warmed in relief to see it.

“I am rested,” Lan Qiren promised and set the cup neatly back down, which only made Lan Xichen calm down further. It was always in his habits, he’d found, that Lan Xichen paid the most attention to. As did Wangji, and he smiled to himself at memories of a frowning, silent child worriedly pulling on his sleeve because he had not finished his tea. He would make sure to finish this cup for both their sakes, no matter how he truly felt. “Just in my thoughts this morning.”

Lan Xichen nodded and sipped his own tea, the movement graceful and perfect. He looked so much like his mother that the room in his heart where he’d secretly locked Madam Lan away ached. That room was coated in roses and black thorns, and he pushed her memories from the fore of his mind, but it was a little too late. He was already bared open, so the next words hit him like barbs, a thousand arrows to yet another room of his heart, colored in purple and echoing with distant thunder..

“Sect Leader Jiang has been asking about you,” Lan Xichen said and there was a tiny laugh in the words. “As has Young Master Jin. I haven not seen you play with anyone since Wangji, shufu.”

“He is a child, Xichen,” Lan Qiren defended easily, “and his uncle was sick. A simple decision to keep him calm.”

Nevermind that there were nannies here, and other children. It would have been just as simple to hand Jin Ling into the care of one of them and let him play away his worry with A-Yuan and A-Yi, and other boys and girls his own age. But that stubborn room in his heart had not let him, for it was beginning to sprout with golden peonies too, and already he could hear Cangse Sanren’s laughter.

Lan-xiong, so fearsome! If you scowl like that, no one will marry you!

His ears went hot and he sipped his tea to stave off any teasing. Blessedly, Lan Xichen took the hint.

“Of course,” he agreed, because he was a better nephew than Lan Qiren deserved, but his eyes were still going over Lan Qiren quizzically, a look he knew far too well. It was the same face he wore when he puzzled through a game of chess, or a painting, or a new piece of music, an inevitability that it would be solved.

Lan Qiren, for once, didn’t know what to say to dissuade him. Thankfully, a knock sounded before he could try and a young disciple bowed from the door. 

“Old Master Lan, Sect Leader Jiang and Young Master Jin are here to see you.”

He wanted to laugh, almost, because of course Jiang Cheng had wasted no time. A storm opened in that heart room, fluttering with lotus and peony petals, and he realized he was stroking his beard again. It went unnoticed by Lan Xichen this time, given he was politely excusing everyone away, and Lan Qiren could hear her laughing again, goading him on.

Lan-xiong, be brave!

“No,” he said over Lan Xichen and looked up at the disciple. “Let them in.”

“Shufu, you’re not dressed,” Lan Xichen argued immediately, the surprise on his face making his eyes wide and his voice a little high. 

“I am aware,” Lan Qiren said evenly and took a sip of tea just so he could set the cup down in a more final motion. “Leave us please, Xichen. Sect Leader Jiang and I have something to discuss.”

“Of… course, shufu,” Lan Xichen said, and his confusion made him look like a lost little boy. Lan Qiren ached immediately to pull him into his arms and guard him from the world, but the moment was gone quickly and Lan Xichen slipped past the door. 

The very air seemed to crackle with lightning as Jiang Cheng stepped inside, and even with a five year old on his hip, he looked imposing and handsome and all of Lan Qiren’s world tinted to a stormy purple.

“Old Master,” was his greeting, voice low and rough, but full of confidence, if only for the moment. 

“Sect leader,” Lan Qiren gave back, like he wasn’t in sleep clothes with his hair down, like this was just any other meeting between them and not the most important talk of his life. “Young Master Jin.”

“Old teacher!” Jin Ling wiggled to be put down and Jiang Cheng obliged him. The boy hurried over to Lan Qiren with what looked like a mess of paper in his hands, but was actually a folded paper dog that he handed over with happiness. “Are you feeling better? I made this for you. Jiu-jiu showed me how to do the folds!”

The offering was simple, but made him ache. He nodded seriously and took the little dog, setting it on the desk. “I am well, Young Master,” he promised and got a luminous smile for his words. “Thank you.”

“A-Ling, go play with your boat. Old Master Lan and I need to have a talk,” Jiang Cheng said, pulling the wooden toy from his sleeve. Jin Ling grinned and took it, then retreated to a spot near the go board. He might as well not have been there at all with how intensely Jiang Cheng was staring him down and it took all of Lan Qiren’s will not to shake as he poured the man a cup of tea.

It was silent and heavy as Jiang Cheng folded himself into the place Lan Xichen had been, and Lan Qiren felt his mind flicker back to golden days, even as his eyes were entranced by the vision of violet and silver before him. 

Cangse Sanren was as close to a first love as he’d ever gotten, and she had been his opposite in every way. Jiang Cheng, the one whose room in his heart knocked the loudest, was more like himself, strict and perfunct, bitter of the world and tethered only by the love of a nephew. He was a study of what was proper and expected of any sect leader, warrior, and ally. He was fierce and stalwart, a wall all bad things had to break down before anyone else was hurt.

Lan Qiren had been in awe of him a long time and let it show in his eyes as he set down the cup. He knew Jiang cheng expected words, expected an explanation, but like Jiang Cheng himself, he was not a man made of them. The only words he knew were rules, which were armor and guidance. But words from the heart? He might as well have been an illiterate fool.

The only consolation was that Jiang Cheng seemed to be having as much trouble as he. As the silence stretched on, he watched the irritation and embarrassment only grow as they both tried and failed to speak. Finally, Jiang Cheng simply swore under his breath, and though it broke a rule, it lit a fire in that room Jiang Cheng owned in his heart and made him laugh.

Like ice breaking, Jiang Cheng huffed a brief chuckle to join him and his shoulders slumped. “This is stupid,” he said, and Lan Qiren had to agree. “We talk all the time. We should be able to do this.”

Lan Qiren nodded and stroked his beard, a movement Jiang Cheng watched with dark eyes. “I do not speak plainly of what is in my heart, Sect Leader,” Lan Qiren said, and it was the bravest he’d ever been. The heat in his ears trickled down into his neck, plain for the man to see.

“Your heart?” Jiang Cheng echoed, incredulous, and he too looked like a lost child, hopeful and aching for things that were always ripped away. Lan Qiren felt the same instinct to hold him and guard him from the world he felt with his nephews. “That would imply that I am in your heart, Old Master.”

It was a challenge, and a plea. Lan Qiren looked down at his cup of tea and saw his own smile. “You are.”

Simple, could it really be that simple? He met Jiang Cheng’s eye and waited, watched a valiant struggle flicker in those eyes and over his expression. It settled on more of a scowl, in the end, but that was just armor too.

“You… too,” Jiang Cheng swallowed, fought the words out with all the same intensity he gave in every battle fought before, steadfast, yet ready to be struck down at any moment. “For me it’s the same.”

Jiang Cheng went tense afterwards, as though just hearing the words would make Lan Qiren reconsider. He was tempted, in truth, if only because it was so unusual, and that he did not wish for Jiang Cheng to be trapped by someone just like him, but even more unbending. Surely, Jiang Cheng deserved more? Surely this miracle was not meant to last?

Lan-xiong…

He closed his eyes and breathed, then took a sip of tea to settle his nerves. There were so many things he wished to say, but didn’t know how to. He had never been gifted in that way as Cangse Sanren had been. But then, neither was Jiang Cheng, and in that he found his answer.

Love through action, his only method. He prayed it would be enough.

“I expect a proper courtship,” he said sternly. “There are rules for this kind of thing and expect you to heed them all.”

Internally, he winced, because why did he sound like a chiding teacher? But for some reason, it seemed to settle well, and Jiang Cheng sat all the straighter, with an ease that had not been there before, and nodded once.

“So I will,” he promised and that part of Lan Qiren’s heart was utterly lost.

[ruensroad]

Shen Yuan may or may not be getting a crush on the very pretty man at his gym. The problem? Pretty Man is constantly covered in bruises, seems withdrawn, and is clearly in distress. Shen Yuan may not be a cheesy romance hero, but he can still offer the guy a safe place to live, right? Right.

Basically Shen Yuan brings home Liu Qingge thinking he's in an abusive relationship, when in fact he's actually an underground fighter. Mutual pining, gentle first aid, and roommate shenanigans ensue.

LiuShen Week 2021 BABY Day Four is UP

[ruensroad]

Catching Lightning

I had this stuck in my head and it wouldn’t leave, so I wrote it down.

tbh, I like this pairing. Maybe sometime I’ll go more in depth.

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There was a point, some time ago, that these meetings with the Jiang Sect Leader had become a bit of a tradition, though if he were pressed, Lan Qiren knew he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the moment. It’d just simply been meetings between teacher and student, with fragrant Lotus Pier tea as a gift and a go board between them that simply hadn’t stopped, not from the first time when Jiang Cheng had been sixteen and one of the top in his class, willing to indulge Lan Qiren in a test of his strategy, the way he tested all the sect leader heirs that he taught.

But unlike the others, Jiang Cheng had kept coming back. Through war, through tragedy. Through rebirth and rebuilding. The boy that had been had transformed before his eyes, angrier, sadder, lonelier, but still just as willing to indulge Lan Qiren’s love of go and bring him tea.

Lan Qiren would never admit it, but the lightly spiced tea was his favorite, though he didn’t know if it was the flavor or his feelings in regards to the man that made it so.

This game felt like a privilege. The dead of winter was not a time Jiang Cheng ventured out of his sect, given it was his time with Jin Ling. Traveling with a five year old child, and into a cold place, was not advisable, even if the boy was not heir of all LanLing. But Jiang Cheng had braved it, and for no other reason than to show Jin Ling snowfall, and then to sequester himself in Lan Qiren’s state room, serving the spiced tea, face not smiling but relaxed, their game of go continuing on from the months’ hiatus.

Jin Ling was babbling at Jiang Cheng’s back, messing with his uncle’s hair, and that was the beginning of all of Lan Qiren’s problems, right there.

Because the man’s hair was down, loose and straight and long, moving like a veil each time he leaned forward to place another piece. Lan Qiren was at a loss as to why the sight stole his breath, but it did. Perhaps it was because he’d never before seen it.

His patience and love for Jin Ling was obvious, even if his face didn’t always show it, and Lan Qiren felt like he was intruding, even though these were his rooms, and Jiang Cheng the guest. He said nothing, however, and listened as Jiang Cheng talked of Lotus Pier, of training his disciples in their water cultivation techniques during the annual floods. It wasn’t particularly interesting news, but Lan Qiren listened raptly to every word, even the soft ones aimed at Jin Ling when the boy got too overzealous with pulling and braiding.

Some part of his heart was hard with logic, that he enjoyed these times with Jiang Cheng because he’d been friends with Jiang Fengmian. His friend, too, had sat with him like this, sharing tea and losing at go. They’d laughed and talked for hours, each memory golden and light in Lan Qiren’s mind. 

But the other part of his heart, the more troublesome part, pointed out Jiang Cheng’s beauty was too sharp, his face too scowly, his eyes too flinty, to be a mere echo of that friendship. Jiang Cheng was his mother’s child through and through, but also better, softer in his hard way. Jin Ling was utterly fearless of him, even with that impressive frown, which spoke to a gentleness only Jiang Cheng could give. A gentleness he had not gotten in his own childhood.

A voice in his head delighted in torturing him with each tiny smile, each lowered word as Jin Ling was talked to and the easy trust and love between uncle and nephew. Jiang Cheng was beautiful and tired and strong. He cut through every moment like a thunderstorm, electrifying the air. Seeing him like this was just as humbling as when he was between the world and danger, eyes bright with lightning, body poised with power. Perhaps even more so, because this was a Jiang Cheng only Jin Ling got to see, and for some reason, he’d deigned Lan Qiren important enough to see it too.

“You’re as cutthroat as ever, Old Master,” Jiang Cheng said, voice low and even as he moved his black piece. It would be sacrificed to Lan Qiren’s, just as he’d planned, and Lan Qiren smiled at that slight turn of the man’s mouth. 

“I will not simply let you win, Sect Leader.” The tease was easy, so easy, and in many ways this was a side of himself he too only shared with his nephews. Jiang Cheng was important enough to share it with, and he felt his heart do a worrying drop at the way Jiang Cheng huffed a laugh, the black piece removed form the board.

“I’d be insulted if you did,” Jiang Chen agreed, and it wasn’t even a tease, really. Lan Qiren knew him enough to know he would be insulted to be allowed to win. He wanted fair competition, thrived on it, and Lan Qiren knew himself well enough to know he thrived on the same. 

He thrived on everything about these meetings, if he were fully honest with himself, but he worried about the reason why. It was there, of course, in the corners of Jiang Cheng’s lips, the faint crinkle in his eyes, the way his throat flashed each time he swallowed. It’d been a long time since Lan Qiren had felt a stirring of desire, but this impossible storm of a man made him feel it and he wasn’t sure how to move forward.

Never speaking of it seemed the appropriate response, and yet sometimes, when those dark eyes flicked up to his, a smirk forming, the man’s body at ease and relaxed, Lan Qiren wished he were braver, or far more reckless. More selfish. Jiang Cheng made him want to be very selfish indeed.

It was a fool’s dream, but one he’d carry with gladness if it meant he could sit here, at the heart of the storm, and earn a smile no one else would get to see. Love didn’t have to be a romance, out in the open. Sometimes it was simply quiet, stolen glances and whispered hopes inside his heart, which shouldn’t be whispering for anyone, let alone Jiang Cheng.

It wasn’t for Lans to deny their love, but it was their way of temperance. There was no way it would go anywhere but here, with each non-touch between rounds of go, with Jin Ling giggling and making Jiang Cheng so impossibly soft. It shouldn’t, it couldn’t. It wouldn’t.

Striving to bottle lightning was more for the Jiang to attempt anyway, with their aim for the impossible. He would take what was offered and pray his heart did not give out.

By that smile he got as another piece was blocked, he feared he knew his own demise, and it was right there in Jiang Cheng’s tired, amused gaze.

What a way to go.