Not people on Reddit excusing Jos Verstappen’s abusive arse and saying that he did whatever the fuck he did for Max’s own good.
let's #pause for a #swing before we carry on with the #story and inside the #murderers #manor... to #remember... the scariest #monsters are often people...
#pandemic #photography
aaAAAAAAAAAAHHHH SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM MY JACOB COLLIER RABBIT HOLE OR I'LL END UP WATCHING ALL HIS FUCKING MASTERCLASSES AND UNDERSTAND BARELY ANY OF IT LIKE A CHUMP
@dollta
ignore the mommy
anyways, this mf person right here is trynna say im more obsessed???
MF ITS YOUR FAULT IM IN THIS POSITION
This is what forty degrees below zero looks like in an abandoned apartment building in the region of Siberia.
Futures Past pt23 / On AO3
Lan Xichen rushes to the rescue, and has an unfortunate realisation
It was quite startling for Lan Xichen to find Meng Yao on his doorstep so late at night, looking conflicted and a little scared. It brought to mind another occasion, far in the future, when a man then known as Jin Guangyao would have come to return a jade token after being publicly accused of having murdered Nie Mingjue. He’d looked so unsure then, and the man who Lan Xichen would have become would have wished to trust him again, until it became too clear that the person he’d called his friend had truly lied all those years.
But those were events which would not come to pass. Meng Yao would likely never bear another last name, and he certainly would not be allowed to kill Nie Mingjue. So Lan Xichen pushed away those memories of a man who wasn’t quite himself, and forced his mind to focus on the present.
“Meng gongzi, I was not expecting you. May I help you?”
“Lan gongzi, I think… no, I’m quite sure that Wei gongzi and Jiang gongzi have done something they shouldn’t,” Meng Yao said in a soft, helpless voice. “I know I should have gone to a teacher about it, but you’re friends with Jiang gongzi and I was hoping maybe you could help solve this discreetly? I would be in your debt if you could. Madam Yu ordered me to keep her son out of trouble, but it can be so hard...”
“I would not like to be in your position,” Lan Xichen agreed. “Very well then, let’s hear what they’ve done.”
“It seems they’ve gone to Caiyi Town, about those water ghouls they have over there.”
“They’ve gone there?” Lan Xichen gasped, so shaken he had to lean against the door. “Alone?”
“Oh, no, not quite alone!” Meng Yao quickly replied, twisting his hands in distress. “Of course I couldn’t disturb Lan gongzi until I was certain of the situation, so I checked a little. It appears Nie gongzi is with them.”
Cold seeped through Lan Xichen's body, freezing him to his heart.
“Huaisang went too?” He asked. “But he’s… he doesn’t even like Night Hunting! And he’s… his core... he's not… are you sure?”
“The other Nie disciples said his sabre wasn’t there,” Meng Yao remarked. “He barely even takes it for sword lessons, and he too hasn’t been seen with lunch. It’s too big of a coincidence. He’ll be fine, though! It is only some water ghouls, and I assure you that Wei gongzi and Jiang gongzi have a lot of experience with those.”
“It’s not water ghouls,” Lan Xichen mumbled, fighting for breath.
He refused to let panic seize him, not at such a time, when every moment counted. But the thought of Nie Huaisang in such danger, of failing to protect everyone from the creature in that lake even in this life, when he knew what hid under the water...
“There’s… there’s something in that lake,” Lan Xichen managed to say. “Waterborne Abyss. It’s… even an immortal would struggle. We have to… Meng gongzi, can you find my brother? I’ll… I’ll warn some elders, but…”
“Ah, about that,” Meng Yao said, looking quite worried for Lan Xichen, but too polite to say anything when there was no closeness between them. “While I was looking for my friends, one Lan disciple told me that he thought he’d seen them at the gate a little earlier, in company of your brother and that boy Nie Huaisang is always hanging out with.”
Lan Xichen had never wanted to curse so badly in his life.
He was going to kill those five idiots, supposing the Waterborne Abyss didn't get them first.
-
It was almost dawn when Lan Xichen and a few experienced Lan cultivators he had convinced to accompany him took flight toward Caiyi Town. That meant they’d be well over half a day behind Wei Wuxian’s group. Part of that delay was to blame on the boys themselves, who had guessed that Meng Yao might betray them once he realised they were gone, and had made sure to leave while he was otherwise occupied. But Meng Yao himself had made things worse by waiting a few shichen before warning Lan Xichen of what had happened.
Ostensibly that was because he hadn’t wanted to raise the alarm for nothing, when Wei Wuxian and his friends were known to disappear into the Back Hills or head out to Gusu sometimes. Lan Xichen might have taken him at his word, had he not known what sort of things Meng Yao was, or would be, capable of. So as he flew toward Caiyi Town, he could only think that by doing things that way, Meng Yao could pass for a serious and dutiful young man to the adults’ eyes, while also ensuring his friends would get to have their Night Hunt, and he could obtain their gratitude for protecting their fun.
Or perhaps Lan Xichen was just unfair and too suspicious of Meng Yao, when in that other future he’d never been suspicious enough.
By the time they reached Caiyi Town mid-morning, it was to learn that the five boys had rented some boats and already gone out on the lake. After a brief discussion, Lan Xichen's group decided they wouldn't rent boats, and instead would directly fly over the lake to find those boys and take them home.
There was no time to waste, not with this level of danger. The others agreed with his sense of urgency, since he'd shared with them his 'suspicions' concerning a waterborne abyss while they were flying.
While Biling Lake was vast, it ended up being fairly easy to follow the trace of those five boys. First, because Lan Xichen could see history repeating itself once again, and remembered the general zone where they had been attacked in that other life. Secondly because after a while, some distant cries were heard, and the loudest of all voices was unmistakably Nie Huaisang’s. Fearing they might be too late, Lan Xichen and the others sped up until they finally saw the boats.
Out of the four boats the boys had rented in town, only three remained. While Jiang Cheng was alone on his, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were sharing a second one, and Su She and Nie Huaisang were on the last one. It was too easy to guess what had become of the fourth boat, because it was happening to Nie Huaisang’s boat too.
A hord of water ghouls had started attacking all the boats, forcing the five boys to fight fiercely, but it was Nie Huaisang and Su She’s boat that was under the most pressing attack, perhaps because the ghouls sensed that those two were the weakest of the group. Under the sheer number of ghouls, the boat, which had drifted away from the other two, was starting to capsize.
Su She was doing his best to keep the water ghouls at bay but appeared to be getting tired, and the other three were so busy protecting their own boats that it was impossible to go rescue their friends. And while Su She could at least fight, Nie Huaisang was just screaming and panicking, doing little more than to kick and flail whenever a ghoul tried to grab him.
A heavier ghoul trying to climb on board jolted the boat more violently, and Nie Huaisang lost balance. He managed, just barely, to avoid falling into the water, but a water ghoul took this chance sink its claws into his ankle.
Nie Huaisang screamed, before being pulled underwater.
The sudden movement shook the boat again, more violently this time, and Su She briefly fell to his knees. He quickly got back on his feet, shouting Nie Huaisang’s name and prepared to jump after him.
Lan Xichen beat him to it, plunging into the water with his sword in hand. The icy cold almost stole his breath away, and immediately undead hands started trying to grasp him, before retreating under the power of Shuoyue. Below him, Nie Huaisang was being dragged down into dark waters, fighting as hard as he could but powerless against the might of the waterborne abyss.
He extended one hand toward Lan Xichen who desperately tried to grab it. Once, twice, he missed it, the surrounding darkness pulling Nie Huaisang out of his reach. On the third attempt, as he was about to run out of air, Lan Xichen finally managed to seize Nie Huaisang’s wrist and immediately started pulling him toward the surface.
Grabbing Nie Huaisang had been only the first step. The waterborne abyss did not want to let go of its victim. Lan Xichen had to focus his power into Shuoyue to help them escape the water, and even like this they might both have drowned if not for Bichen and Suibian coming to the rescue, flying underwater and harassing the water ghouls so they couldn't touch their preys. Attacked this way, the darkness finally relented, giving Lan Xichen a chance to escape the water and fly up, clutching Nie Huaisang against his heart.
It came as no surprise to see that the boat on which Nie Huaisang and Su She had been standing was almost completely submerged, with Su She having joined Jiang Cheng. Still holding tightly to Nie Huaisang who was only half conscious, Lan Xichen ordered everyone to abandon the boats and return to shore. All four boys jumped on their swords and flew up, watching the remaining boats quickly disappear under the water as well.
They were all silent as they flew back toward Caiyi Town, for which Lan Xichen was glad. He wasn't sure he could have handled a conversation at that time. Earlier, in the heat of the moment, he had barely realised what was happening when Nie Huaisang had disappeared under the water. Now though, it was starting to hit him that the boy currently in his arms had almost died before his eyes.
It would have been awful to have lost anyone to that monstrous lake of course. But to lose Nie Huaisang in particular would have been unbearable. If Lan Xichen had been less exhausted, or less shocked, he might have told himself such a loss would have been so tragic only because Nie Huaisang was his dearest friend's brother, because he was also Lan Xichen's friend, because it might have created a diplomatic incident between Qinghe Nie, Gusu Lan, and Yunmeng Jiang, just when it was more necessary than ever that they stay united.
All those things would have been true, obviously. But the real reason why Lan Xichen couldn't have withstood it if Nie Huaisang had died was simply because he loved him.
It was not something he would have expected, considering the opinion he used to have of Nie Huaisang before dreaming of the future, or his memories of the cold and cruel man Nie Huaisang would have become in that future. But Lan Xichen had learned how wrong his old opinions had been, and Nie Huaisang was certainly neither cold nor cruel at the moment, except quite accidentally. He was cheerful, funny, and surprisingly clever when something interested him, and it was only a shame that he most likely didn't feel the same way Lan Xichen felt.
Just as he was glad that nobody was speaking, Lan Xichen was also grateful the current situation gave him something to focus on that wasn't his probably unrequited feelings. He forced himself to fly his sword as fast as it would go, while checking that nobody in the group was falling behind, and also sparing some spiritual energy to share with Nie Huaisang who was trembling so much in his arms.
At last, they arrived in the small town again. Lan Xichen immediately dispatched someone to find an inn for all of them, making it clear money was not to be an issue. When one Lan disciple had left for that purpose, Lan Xichen turned his attention to the four contrite teenagers in front of him, while in his arms Nie Huaisang was spared his anger.
“I cannot believe you’d be so reckless,” Lan Xichen scolded them. “Did none of you stop to wonder why I wanted this matter to be treated with such caution?”
The boys all looked guilty and exchanged glances, their shoulders hunched. Even Lan Wangji's posture wasn't quite as perfect as usual.
“We thought you were not used to dealing with water ghouls,” Wei Wuxian confessed. “From what everyone said about that case, it seemed like a very small problem. How did you guess it was something so dangerous? Because that… that was a waterborne abyss, right? How did you…”
“That’s for me to know,” Lan Xichen replied. “Wei gongzi would do well to accept that people can give him orders because they have good reasons for it, and not just because they want to ruin his fun, as he seems to believe. You were lucky that I was warned in time.”
“But it makes no sense for that Waterborne Abyss to be there,” Wei Wuxian argued. “There haven’t been that many deaths in the region, and when we asked, most of the corpses found weren’t local people anyway. We couldn’t expect for something like that to have appeared here. Unless… Unless it didn’t appear here?”
Without meaning to, Lan Xichen turned his gaze up to the sky, toward the setting sun. Wei Wuxian followed his eyes, and frowned.
“Oh, I see.”
“I’m very glad you’re taking this as a chance to prove how very clever you can be,” Lan Xichen said. “I’d advise that you keep your conclusion to yourself, since nothing can be proven.”
“But I was right to think that this would be safe,” Wei Wuxian insisted. "There was no clue to say that sect might have pushed a waterborne abyss out of their domain."
“And you were wrong to organise this without at least asking me why I wanted to take precautions. You were all wrong, and I’m disappointed in all of you. I would have taken you five to be among the smartest people of our age, but it appears I was mistaken. You’re no better than children who throw a tantrum because they’re not allowed to touch a flame. There will be consequences for this. I particularly expected better from you, Wangji, and I know shufu too will be sad to hear about this.”
Having lived his entire life trying to be a good and dutiful disciple, Lan Wangji looked mortified to be scolded that way. As he should be. If he hadn’t been led astray by Wei Wuxian… it had been a mistake to allow Nie Huaisang to play the matchmaker.
“Wait, Lan gongzi, please don’t be too harsh on your brother,” Wei Wuxian pleaded, bowing down. “The truth is, he really wanted to check with you before coming here! But I knew you would probably forbid us to have that Night Hunt, so I made him think that Meng Yao would warn you. It’s really my fault, don’t blame him for something he didn’t do.”
"Is that so."
Wei Wuxian hesitated for only a moment. He glanced at Lan Wangji, then nodded firmly.
"Lan gongzi, this was all my fault. I pushed the others to come here. I'm the only one who should be punished."
"I carry equal blame," Lan Wangji immediately objected, coming to stand next to Wei Wuxian. "Wei Ying does not know xiongzhang's character and skill. Knowing both, I had no excuse. Whatever punishment Wei Ying receives, mine should be the same."
Wei Wuxian gasped softly at that declaration, looking equal part touched and irritated that Lan Wangji would ruin his noble sacrifice.
For his part, Lan Xichen was solely irritated. He should have been proud of his brother perhaps, for refusing to let another carry the blame, for acknowledging his failings. On any other topic, Lan Xichen would have been proud.
All he could see right then was that Lan Wangji was already on the path that had nearly broken him in a different life. Lan Xichen remembered the festering flesh on his brother's back after thirty-three lashes of the discipline whips, the weeks-long fever that almost killed him more than once, the scar burned onto his chest, and how his spirit remained shattered long after his body had mended.
Lan Wangji had always held it as a point of pride that he did not regret the choices that had led him there.
Lan Xichen had regretted them on his behalf, in that future that wouldn't be. And now, in the present, he wished he'd known how to separate his brother from the boy who caused him such pain.
"Gege, I'm cold," a small voice sniffled against his chest.
Those were the first words Nie Huaisang had said since being rescued, and as so often happened with him, they struck right into Lan Xichen’s heart. Being angry was no excuse for forgetting his duty. Of course Nie Huaisang would be cold, he was drenched and bleeding, and Lan Xichen had been so busy arguing that he hadn’t thought to worry about his friend. Eager to correct that mistake, Lan Xichen quickly removed his outer robe and wrapped it around Nie Huaisang, gently rubbing his arms and shoulders in an effort to warm him up.
“Lan Xingyu will soon have found us a place to rest,” Lan Xichen said in a soft voice. “Just hold on a little longer, Huaisang. How is your leg? Does it hurt much?”
Still sniffling, Nie Huaisang shook his head and tried to pull away from Lan Xichen to prove that he was fine. All that accomplished was to make him grimace in pain and stumble back into the older boy’s arms as soon as he put any weight on his injured leg.
“Lan gongzi, I can help him if you want,” Su She offered, looking truly worried for his friend. “I don’t mind carrying him at all.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Lan Xichen retorted, even though he knew he should have accepted.
It was selfish of him to want to keep Nie Huaisang close like that, and out of the whole lot, Su She was surprisingly the person with whom Lan Xichen was the least angry at the moment, since he'd probably only come to please Nie Huaisang, and wouldn't have been listened to if he'd objected to anything. He should have let Su She know that he hadn’t fallen in disgrace by entrusting Nie Huaisang to him.
He should have.
He would have, if the thought of letting go of Nie Huaisang weren’t so unbearable at that moment.
Lan Xingyu returned soon after, having secured rooms for them and arranged for meals as well. Since the inn was a little distance away, Lan Xichen picked up Nie Huaisang in his arms to walk there. The younger boy mildly protested, but was too tired to really fight it.
Once they reached the inn, Lan Xichen ordered everyone to check themselves for any wounds they might not have noticed before. Anyone who was harmed was to take time to heal themselves, or get help for it, and then they were to eat and get some sleep before they all returned to the Cloud Recesses.
For his part, Lan Xichen promptly took Nie Huaisang to one of the rooms and put him down on the bed there. Nie Huaisang was weakened enough that even sitting up seemed to cause him some trouble, which wasn’t surprising when there were some deep claw marks on his left leg, and he was still bleeding. Without pausing to think, Lan Xichen knelt down before the bed and pushed up his friend’s clothes to inspect the wound.
There was nothing that looked like it might get infected, and luckily no major blood vessel appeared to have been hit. Lan Xichen gave Nie Huaisang a pill to help with both pain and healing, which the other boy swallowed with some difficulty. To help it take effect faster, Lan Xichen then started sharing what spiritual energy he still had left after that harrowing night. Soon enough Nie Huaisang stopped bleeding, and even started warming up a little, though he still clutched Lan Xichen’s robes tight around him.
Now that the situation felt less urgent, Lan Xichen considered the fact that Nie Huaisang’s clothes were drenched with water, forcing him to use energy to keep warm that should instead have gone to healing his leg. Had it been another person, Lan Xichen would have ordered them to undress immediately, as there was no place for shame in such a situation. But because it was Nie Huaisang, he felt rather shy about giving such an order. After his earlier realisation, he feared it would have been too much like taking advantage.
“Really Huaisang, how unreasonable of you,” he said instead. “Look at you… are you cold still?”
Nie Huaisang sniffled and nodded dejectedly.
“Well, your clothes are very wet,” Lan Xichen remarked, hoping that would be enough of a hint.
It was. In spite of his dislike for Night Hunting, Nie Huaisang had been trained for them by his brother, and Nie Mingjue was quite serious about these things. So Nie Huaisang undressed with slow movements, dropping his wet clothes around his feet while Lan Xichen, still kneeling in front of him, stared at the floorboard and wondered how inappropriate it would be to offer help, now that he’d realised how he felt. It made him wish he hadn’t had that realisation, so he could be more useful to Nie Huaisang.
Even alone and trembling, Nie Huaisang eventually managed to undress almost entirely, only keeping on his innermost clothes for propriety and then wrapping himself inside the blanket that was on the bed. His face regained some colour at last, though his expression remained quite pitiful.
“There, that’s better,” Lan Xichen said, redirecting his attention to Nie Huaisang’s leg. “I really don’t understand why you came here, but you were lucky that it wasn’t worse than this. Next time, don’t join Night Hunts just because your friends force you to. It’s good to know your limits.”
A strangled sound escaped Nie Huaisang’s lips, who started trembling again. When Lan Xichen looked up, his friend was crying heavy tears and trying to muffle himself by pressing his mouth into the blanket.
“Huaisang, I’m not scolding you!” Lan Xichen quickly said. “I know this can’t have been your idea, and it would have been difficult to refuse if your friends were determined to come here. I’m not angry, I know you didn’t…”
“I wanted to!” Nie Huaisang sobbed. “I wanted, I thought it’d be fun, I thought it’d be easy! Everyone knows water ghouls aren’t hard, but I’m, I’m s-so bad at everything! Even M-Meng Yao can d-destroy water g-ghouls, they said! And I-I t-thought you’d be impressed with me if I did this, but now you’ll just start looking d-down on me.”
“I could never look down on you,” Lan Xichen protested, more earnestly than was wise. “You’re very dear to me, what happened today doesn’t change that.”
Nie Huaisang only sobbed harder, bringing the blanket tighter around him, as if it might shield him from the world.
“But I’m useless!” he cried out. “I’m barely a cultivator at all! I don’t have a golden core yet! I can’t fly long on my sabre! I can’t fight! I don’t know about any creatures or how to defeat them! I can’t even learn Qin language, I’m useless, I’m so useless and everyone is going to leave me behind, they’re all going to realise I’ll never get better and they’ll all leave me. I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life!”
Shocked by that outburst, Lan Xichen put his hand on Nie Huaisang’s shoulders, hoping to comfort him.
“I won’t let you end up alone,” he promised, thinking of the man Nie Huaisang would have become in that unbearable future because there was no one on his side, but also of the boy he was now, who did not deserve to feel so miserable. “You don’t have to be the best of cultivators. Your golden core will form when it forms, and even if it doesn’t, that doesn’t change your worth.”
Nie Huaisang huffed and looked away, a few more tears escaping him. There was a grimace on his lips that Lan Xichen didn’t like. He’d noticed before that Nie Huaisang had a bad opinion of himself, and it had bothered him every time it came up, but he found it upsetting that such an incident might make it worse when success could never have been an option.
“Huaisang, look at me,” he ordered.
Stubborn as any Nie could be, Nie Huaisang instead turned his head to the side. Lan Xichen sighed, and let go of his friend’s shoulders to instead put his hands on Nie Huaisang’s cheeks and force him to look his way. Startled by the gesture, Nie Huaisang offered no resistance and stared at Lan Xichen with frightened eyes.
“Huaisang, you were not well enough earlier to understand what we were saying,” Lan Xichen said, “but this Night Hunt was not a simple one at all. Water ghouls are not that easy, they’re very cunning, and can be very dangerous to someone not used to dealing with them. And this wasn’t just water ghouls, it was a waterborne abyss, and that’s a very dangerous being. All of the strongest cultivators currently alive could come together and still struggle against one, especially one that has established itself in such a large body of water. Even your brother would not find this easy.”
Nie Huaisang’s eyes widened at that last statement. He finally appeared to calm down a little, though a few more tears still escaped him. Without thinking, Lan Xichen brushed them away with his thumb before he resumed speaking.
“Even if this had been an easy Night Hunt though, it wouldn’t matter,” he said. “Your friends like you as you are. They know what sort of a person you are after all. You’ve never pretended to be a great cultivator, and we don’t mind. You are dear to us for other reasons, and so you don’t have to act against your nature to please us. Su She certainly seems to appreciate you as you truly are, and I don’t think he’s going to abandon you just because you cannot fight as well as others do. I won’t abandon you either. You’re my friend, my very dear friend, who makes me laugh, and doesn’t hesitate to scold me when I act wrong. Do you have any idea how much I care about you?”
Nie Huaisang’s cheeks now felt burning under Lan Xichen’s palms, perhaps because his face was now so red. He was warming up at last, the medicine had to take effect. Or it might have been more than the medicine, Lan Xichen thought, brushing away a last lone tear. Nie Huaisang was staring at him with an intense expression that might have been fear or hope, his lips slightly parted.
Lan Xichen wondered what it would feel like to kiss those lips.
The moment was wrong for it. He knew that. Nie Huaisang had almost died and was still unwell, while Lan Xichen’s own emotions ran high and clouded his judgement. It would be a terrible idea to act on what he’d only just realised, and yet Lan Xichen realised he was leaning toward Nie Huaisang’s face. For a moment Nie Huaisang did the same, closing briefly his eyes and letting out a shaky exhale that Lan Xichen felt against his lips, their faces now so close that it would have been easy to kiss. But just as Lan Xichen was about to take what seemed to be offered, Nie Huaisang’s eyes opened again. He quickly pushed away the hands on his cheeks and hurried to his feet, clutching his blanket around him.
“Xichen-gege, I’m so hungry,” he mumbled. “I… Thanks for the medicine, and for your kind words. I’ll go eat now. I’ll see you later.”
Startled by that sudden change, Lan Xichen could only nod at first. Then, seeing Nie Huaisang hobble toward the door, he remembered his duty.
“Huaisang, do you want me to carry you there?” he offered.
That offer startled Nie Huaisang so badly that he stumbled and nearly lost balance.
“That won’t be necessary!” he cried out, shaking his head. “I’m fine. I’ll see you later!”
Before any more help could be offered, Nie Huaisang escaped the room with surprising speed for someone limping so badly. A little stunned by what happened, Lan Xichen stared at the door, unsure how to feel about this, fearing he had crossed a boundary and ruined things. He took a moment to collect himself, then left the room as well, hoping to apologise to Nie Huaisang for making him uncomfortable.
In the main room of the inn, the rest of their group was eating. It did not escape Lan Xichen’s notice that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were sitting next to each other and both appeared content with that arrangement, something that would not have been possible at that point in time in the other future he remembered.
Lan Wangji looked happy enough, considering the circumstances, and his apparent good mood only disappeared when he noticed his brother and remembered that his behaviour in this whole affair had been judged unwise. Lan Xichen wanted to still be upset about his brother’s romance, but perhaps it was just unavoidable that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji should be drawn to each other. He’d have to make his peace with it, and do everything in his power to ensure these two could be happy without first going through tragedy.
Lan Xichen’s attention did not remain long on his brother, his eyes searching for Nie Huaisang, whom he found limping toward one of the other rooms. Without thinking, Lan Xichen walked toward that door as well, only to hear Su She’s voice coming from inside.
"I don't know why you're not going to Lan gongzi for that," Su She was complaining. "He's better at healing than me, and he looked worried about you. I think he’d be happy to take care of you."
A moment of silence. And then…
"No, I don't want it to be him," Nie Huaisang said in a very firm voice, which then turned teasing. "I want it to be you. Please take good care of me, Su-xiong? This humble one places his worthless life in your capable hands."
Su She must have answered something, which in turn made Nie Huaisang laugh weakly, but Lan Xichen was no longer listening. He left quickly to check on everyone else, swallowing his bitterness.
At least now, there could be no more doubt regarding Nie Huaisang’s affections. All he could hope, then, was that his own feelings had gone unnoticed, and that their friendship wouldn’t be ruined.
@mazeofmuses: Of course maki thinks she is both cute and sexy. Gonna smooch her all over
“You’re...” Sniff. “...You’re not going to leave me because I have a really plain figure, are you...?” Sniffle. This poor girl’s legitimately torn up over this, damn...
My favorite genre of fics is inaccurate school AUs. College fics written by someone who’s clearly never been to college and is probably 15 years old. Boarding school fics written by someone who’s never stepped foot in a boarding school and it shows. High school fics written by someone who hasn’t been to high school or spoken to a teenager in upwards of twenty years. I don’t even like high school fics on principle but damn, something but inaccurate school AUs just tickles me.
. . . . . . . . . paused the medley i was watching bc i saw a jungwon vid in the recommendeds below it
I’ve started my meet the artist early this year it’s already my favorite one I’ve done, actually incorporating where the information is written with the drawing
