#mingli

They couldn’t do this sort of thing when she was engaged to Jin Zixuan. They tried, and he hadn’t taken it well. 

The white robes on her body, layers upon layers of them to keep from allowing them to be come see through, grow heavy and rough in the water, but they do little to slow Jiang Yanli down as the dock above creaks and groans under the weight of three grown men. She can see just enough past the glare of the sun to know that Nie Mingjue is squinting hard at the water, she has to time this perfectly. 

Wei Wuxian leans over Nie Mingjue’s shoulder, pointing something out, and it’s Jiang Yanli’s cue to strike, pushing herself up out of the water with a force she shouldn’t have to wrap both small hands around Nie Mingjue’s ankle while both of her brothers shove their shoulders into his back, pitching him forward while they run away, howling with laughter. 

Jiang Yanli is almost certain that she’s a very convincing corpse, she can’t see past her own hair to tell otherwise, but the way Nie Mingjue splashes and tries to fight against her hands on his arms all but confirms it. He’s reaching for Baxia, Jiang Yanli knows she shouldn’t laugh, but she still does, it makes him stop splashing for just one long moment before reality sinks in.

“You!” Nie Mingjue sputters, hair clinging to his face as he dips below the surface for just a moment before he remembers how to tread water. It’s an improvement, he couldn’t even float when they’d first gotten engaged. Alarm gives way to amusement as he tries to swim towards her, only to be met with empty water as Jiang Yanli dives away from him, black hair and white burial robes billowing out around her. 

Nie Mingjue no longer sinks like a stone, but he still can’t keep up with Jiang Yanli when she truly tries to keep away from him. “I didn’t know Mingjue-dage was so eager to swim with me,” Jiang Yanli grins as she resurfaces, pushing her hair out of her face just to look at him. Some men would have splashed and thundered their way back to the shore by now, but all Nie Mingjue has done is watch her as if she’s something to be marveled at.

He swims towards her carefully, never knowing whether or not she’s going to slip through his fingers again, and admittedly, Jiang Yanli thinks about it, but she lets him draw closer instead. She could push him under again, but that feels too mean, even she wouldn’t forgive herself for that. That’s something her brothers did to each other. 

She chooses to be sweet, instead, brushing wet hair from his face and then pressing that same hand against his cheek. He would get tired of swimming with her soon enough, she has to take what she can.

“I would have swam with you sooner if I’d known you made for such a pretty ghost.” Nie Mingjue smiles when he says it, pressing a kiss to the palm of her hand right after, and Jiang Yanli feels her stomach flip before it fills to the brim with butterflies. It isn’t fair how he can tease her right back after she’d conspired with her brothers to push him into the lake. 

Slowly, they drift closer and closer to the shore, sinking into the mud just a little as they climb out of the water together, water falling off the both of them in sheets. If she’d been alone, Jiang Yanli might’ve just laid on the dock so the sun could dry her from bottom to top, she might’ve even fallen asleep in the sun like that, but who knows what kind of rumors would get spread if anyone caught her lying her cheek on Nie Mingjue’s chest while they dried together?

She should lead him over to the tree trunk where her clothes, her real clothes, not the burial robes she’d bribed her shimei to get for her, lay hidden, but Nie Mingjue’s arms wrap around her waist. He’s careful not to pull her wet hair as he holds her close, his eyes glued to her face. He always treats her as if she’s some great beauty, as if she’s something to be held close to his heart.

The humidity of Lotus Pier is already making both of their hair curl, Jiang Yanli wants nothing more than to reach out and run her fingers through Nie Mingjue’s curls, her eyes blinking wide while he continues to watch her like he can’t bear to let her out of his sight.

She shouldn’t. Jiang Yanli knows that she shouldn’t, but before she can think twice about it, she’s standing on tiptoe to kiss Nie Mingjue. Her arms wrap around his neck, keeping him close and keeping herself up, though she doesn’t need to for long. 

Nie Mingjue picks her up and holds her against him before Jiang Yanli even realizes that she’s being moved, her own hands sliding down to his chest. She can feel his heartbeat there, but it feels far, far too fast for something as simple as picking her up. Carefully, because it might break whatever spell they’re under, Jiang Yanli slides one hand up to Nie Mingjue’s throat, feeling for his pulse and finding it just as fast.

“Sect Leader Nie,” Jiang Yanli calls him that to dump ice water over her own head, her lips still numb from the kiss when Nie Mingjue rests his forehead against hers, his eyes fluttering shut. She needs to get down, she needs to put some sort of distance between them so she doesn’t do anything he might regret. It doesn’t matter that she started it, it doesn’t matter that she played a trick on him or kissed him first. This is too much, she’s done too much, and all Nie Mingjue has done is reward her for it. 

Jiang Yanli doesn’t expect to be kissed again, nor does she expect the kiss to linger as long as it does. She can’t hope to control the soft sound that flutters out of her throat, as if one of the butterflies in her stomach has broken loose. 

“Qinghe’s waters will be too cold and shallow for you to do this again, Lady Jiang.” Nie Mingjue speaks to her softly, but the reminder of her own title does nothing to cool off the warmth that’s building up underneath her cheeks, “You’ll have to find other means of playing tricks after we marry.”

Nie Mingjue still wants to marry her, even after Jiang Yanli pulled him into the lake and pretended to be a ghost. She even dressed the part.

Slowly, and then all too quickly, a smile bursts across Jiang Yanli’s face while her cheeks burn hotter, threatening to dry them both in an instant. They aren’t supposed to be alone together, not until after they’re married, they’ve already broken that rule, among others. She shouldn’t go to Qinghe until the wedding, either, Jiang Yanli knows that. Her wedding robes aren’t even done yet. 

“Perhaps a visit to the Unclean Realm should be arranged,” Jiang Yanli speaks softly, leaning her chin against her hand while she pretends to think, “I’ll have to think of what can be prepared once I settle in, won’t I?”

Jiang Yanli doesn’t expect to see Nie Mingjue grin down at her, but it puts her heart in her throat all the same.

“Your future husband might have tricks of his own, Lady Jiang.” It doesn’t sound like a threat or a warning, it sounds like a promise.