bun

Nie Huaisang: Excellent, bonus brothers! I expect backdated birthday presents for the last 19 years (a payment plan is also acceptable). I am now unafraid to cry on you in public. 

Jin Guangyao blinked politely at Nie Mingjue to stall for time.  Was this some sort of slight?  Some attempt to seed a break between himself and Lan Xichen?  Er-ge had looked so happy when Jin Guangyao promised he would come to visit in a months time.

“Da-ge…Er-ge is my sworn brother, of course I should visit him at his home.”

“You really shouldn’t.”

“But he has specifically invited me and I have already accepted.” Jin Guangyao let a softly mournful dip fall into his voice.  “If you don’t trust me with Er-ge alone, I’m sure he would love to have you visit as well.”

Lan Xichen might love it, but Jin Guangyou would certainly not.  Keeping the peace had to come first though, so he feigned a winning smile up at his eldest sworn brother.

Nie Mingjue sniffed derisively however.  “Fine.  Don’t say I didn’t do my duty by you and give a warning.”

Pinning a smile on his face, Jin Guangyao’s mind turned furiously as he bowed to Nie Mingjue’s already retreating back.

What had he meant by it?

**

A month later, Jin Guangyao landed in the Cloud Recesses, trying to disguise how humiliatingly winded he was from the flight - his cultivation not fine enough to have easily kept up with his own guards.

Within minutes, he felt a chill up his spine.

Barely restraining the urge to whip in the direction the feeling came from, Jin Guangyao agreed to Lan Xichen’s offer to dinner and casually glanced to the side.

Lan Wangji stood like a stone pillar in the archway leading to a steep staircase.

Their eyes met and Jin Guangyao jolted in surprise as the man immediately began making his way over.  Sweat gathered on his palms and the space between his fingers as the man bore down on them with a distinctly wrathful tension to his stride.

“Lan er-gongzhi, how good to see you.” Jin Guangyao bowed.

Lan Wangji silently bowed in return, gaze fixed over Jin Guangyao’s shoulder before he looked directly at his brother.  “Xiongxhang.”

“Wangji.” Lan Xichen’s face bloomed in a smile, his voice softening with a warmth and affection Jin Guangyao had only ever heard directed toward Lan Wangji.  “I didn’t know you would be back today.”

“Mn.  The night hunt was easier than expected.”

A carefully banked ember of pride made Lan Xichen’s chest puff up slightly, but he only nodded in acknowledgement. 

“A-Yao and I were about to have dinner, would you join us?”

“Of course.”

It was the most tense dinner of Jin Guangyao’s life.

Lan Xichen happily chatted away.

Lan Wangji spoke sparingly, just enough to keep Lan Xichen speaking, and otherwise stared at the blank walk with the same half vacant intensity of a cat. 

Jin Guangyao continually fought the urge to follow his line of sight again.  There was nothing there but wall.  He also learned to perfect his appearance of calm as, each time Lan Xichen called out for his attention with a soft “A-Yao”, Lan Wangji’s eyes would shift and focus, and suddenly Jin Guangyao was fixed under a look of icy venom.

The rest of his weeklong stay was the same.

Lan Wangji, appearing as suddenly and silently as a phantom phasing through a wall, almost mutely interjecting himself into Lan Xichen’s orbit, and giving Jin Guangyao a perpetual cold-sweat every time he looked at him.  He never said anything.  Never made a threatening motion.  And yet…Jin Guangyao found himself having difficulty sleeping - a watching heaviness lingering in the air keeping him too alert to relax.  A new kind of paranoia came over him on the third day, when he told himself he was being silly thinking someone was watching him, he was in the heart of the Cloud Recesses, in the Sect Leaders private garden with only the man himself for company, then turned and found Lan Wangji standing half-camouflaged with the snow.

Watching.

He’d expected to want to linger at Lan Xichen’s side, but after a week, Jin Guangyao had to fight not to run away from the Cloud Recesses.

**

He stopped in Lanling only to rest, then carried on to Qinghe.

Nie Mingjue recived him immediately.

“Da-ge…ah….Lan Wangji….”

“I thought he would grow out of it,” Nie Mingjue offered with enough sympathy his voice almost sounded gentle.  “It only got worse as he aged though.”

“…I see.”

“Don’t go to Gusu.” Nie MIngjue told him sagely.  “Not without a Discussion Conference to excuse your being there.”

Like buddy this guy won’t let you kiss him, wait fuck that won’t even let you hold his hand, and you think he will move in with you?!??

It’s actually kinda fucking sad, like I feel sympathy for bohn because although he is a possessive/jealous prick sometimes, it’s because other than the flowers he gets nothing back from duen. NOTHING. like of course he’s going to go from 0 to 100, because he feels no security in their relationship.

Duen asks bohn “where’s the trust?” after one of bohn’s jealous outbursts, and I get it it would be frustrating for bohn to have gone off again, but it’s because you almost deliberately make bohn insecure. Bohn seems like the kind of guy to at least need some verbal reassurance (and maybe to some extent physical reassurance as well, like if Duen would actually show any sign of affection for him he would probably chill the fuck out) and while we kind of see Duen do this, it’s only ever when they are alone and it’s never backed up by any actual actions that show Duen means what he’s saying. That’s gotta fuck with you, even just a little bit man.