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“Come on, Wanyin, please,” Nie Huaisang whines as he drapes himself all over Jiang Cheng. “Just come with us to the beach, it will be fun, I promise!”
Jiang Cheng is tempted to say yes, because it would be fun, but he knows he can’t. He worries the hem of his sleeve, even as he shakes Nie Huaisang off.
“No. You go and have fun, I’m tired from driving, I’ll just stay here,” he tells them, but when he looks into all of their expectant faces he almost caves.
“A-Cheng, don’t be such a spoilsport, you can sleep on the beach!” Wei Wuxian tries as well, but he doesn’t care enough to detach himself from Lan Wangji.
“He’s right, A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli now says as well and Jiang Cheng sighs.
“I don’t want to, a-jie,” he tells her gently. “You all go, I’ll just nap here. I don’t want to get sand anywhere and I don’t want to give Wei Wuxian a chance to bury me in it, either,” he says with a look at Wei Wuxian who makes a surprised face.
“Me? I would never!” he shouts but it’s not like anyone is believing him.
“You all go now,” he tries again and bodily starts to push Nie Huaisang towards the group in the hopes that they will leave.
“You sure?” Nie Mingjue asks, his voice full of concern and Jiang Cheng shrugs.
“I am,” he says, even though he would love to go with them. But he knows he can’t. Not if he doesn’t want to spoil the mood. “I’ll just check out the rooms and then sleep for a while. It’ll be dinner before we all know it anyway and I really am tired,” he explains when Nie Mingjue only raises an eyebrow at him but in the end everyone relents.
It’s still a while longer before all of them have their things they’d need for the beach and by the time they finally, finally leave Jiang Cheng is indeed ready to take a nap.
This was almost more exhausting than the drive, if he’s being honest.
He goes back to the room he’s staying in, just like he said he would, but once he’s there he feels too restless to lay down and take a nap, so instead he decides to check out the hotel.
It seems like they have an indoor pool and for a few seconds Jiang Cheng is tempted to go there to make some laps, but then his eyes move on and he realizes that there’s also a whirlpool.
Now that sounds like something Jiang Cheng would enjoy right now.
He quickly changes out of his clothes, avoiding to look in the mirror while he does so and then he’s off. The whirlpool is blessedly empty and he sinks into it with a sigh.
The water has just the right temperature and as soon as he sits fully down he closes his eyes and tilts his head back. This is much more relaxing than the beach, Jiang Cheng is certain of it, and it’s not even entirely because Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian aren’t here.
Jiang Cheng tries very hard not to think about Nie Mingjue at the beach, in just his swim-shorts, too, because even the thought does strange things to his heart.
He would have probably simply dropped dead if he saw Nie Mingjue there, glistening with water and Jiang Cheng can feel himself going red in the face just because he’s thinking about Nie Mingjue asking him to put some sunscreen on him.
Fuck, he’s got it bad for the other man.
Jiang Cheng submerges himself in the whirlpool as best as he can, but it’s so warm that it’s barely doing anything at all for him. When he comes back up he fears he stayed under for longer than he thought, because Nie Mingjue is standing at the edge of the whirlpool.
“What the fuck,” Jiang Cheng splutters and almost submerges again before he manages to sit back down properly.
“What a greeting,” Nie Mingjue chuckles and then he steps into the whirlpool. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asks though it’s clear to Jiang Cheng that he’s not going to wait for his answer.
“Whatever,” Jiang Cheng mutters, making sure to stay under water up to his neck and he very pointedly does not look at each disappearing inch of skin on Nie Mingjue.
“Why are you here?” Jiang Cheng asks after several awkward minutes and Nie Mingjue sighs.
“You had the right idea. The beach seems stressful and the sand can get annoying. I’d like to get one sand-free day in while we’re here.”
Jiang Cheng snorts at that.
“And who is supervising the kids now?”
“The kids are all grown-ass people and can supervise themselves for all I care,” Nie Mingjue grumbles.
“And what if they get into trouble?” Jiang Cheng asks, suddenly worried.
He was counting on Nie Mingjue to keep an eye on Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang and he dreads to think about what kind of trouble those two could get into, especially with how both Lan Wangji and Jiang Yanli indulge them way too much.
“Then they can solve the trouble like the grown-ass people they are. I’m on holiday, too, I don’t want to babysit them every day.”
Jiang Cheng thinks that’s fair enough so he doesn’t say anything else. Instead he tries his very best not to think too hard about the fact that Nie Mingjue is inside of the whirlpool with him, with both of them wearing nothing but their swimwear and despite being entirely submerged Jiang Cheng can’t help but to worry.
“You know that no one cares, right?” Nie Mingjue asks him suddenly and Jiang Cheng sinks deeper, up to his ears.
“That’s not quite true,” he whispers, barely audible over the water and Nie Mingjue hums.
“You care, don’t you?” he then asks and Jiang Cheng wishes they could stop talking about this.
He knows the scars that litter his body make him ugly but it goes beyond that. Everyone with half a brain can tell what most of the scars on his body mean and his family knows enough to know that the rest come from his mother, when he was still living with her.
It's not nice to look at and it’s not a nice reminder, for no one.
“It upsets my siblings to see them,” Jiang Cheng says instead of answering Nie Mingjue’s question and now Nie Mingjue turns towards him.
“It upsets them?”
“Yeah,” Jiang Cheng shrugs. “A-jie thinks she should have noticed what our mother did and Wei Wuxian thinks those are his fault in the first place and we don’t speak about the other ones,” he lowly explains, because it’s not like Nie Mingjue doesn’t know about all of them already.
Jiang Cheng has been living with Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue for a while now and it’s unavoidable that they see them.
“I see,” Nie Mingjue says, but he doesn’t sound too happy about it. “So you stayed here because you didn’t want to ruin the day for them.”
Well, put like that is sounds like something his therapist would definitely scold him over and Jiang Cheng shrugs.
“I will come to the beach eventually,” he promises, though it’s more for himself than for Nie Mingjue. “I just wanted to give them this one day.”
He knows how they can all get; it will be a rambunctious time for them at the beach right now and no one will spare even one thought for Jiang Cheng. That will come later when they come back, but for now everyone gets to enjoy their time.
“I don’t think your therapist would be very happy with this,” Nie Mingjue lightly scolds him now and Jiang Cheng wonders when Nie Mingjue learned to read him this well.
“Yeah, well, but she’s not here now, is she?”
“But I am, so I’m going to tell you how stupid you are being,” Nie Mingjue says and bonks him lightly on the head. “There.”
It startles a laugh out of Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue seems way too satisfied for his taste.
“I am thoroughly scolded,” he promises him, causing Nie Mingjue to smile at him.
It just reminds Jiang Cheng of the fact that they are almost naked at the moment and that he’s very much in love with Nie Mingjue and really, that is not helpful at all.
“Why didn’t you go with the others?” Jiang Cheng asks, mostly to distract himself and Nie Mingjue looks at him as if he’s stupid.
“Because I wanted to have a nice time. How can I have that if you’re not there?” he shoots back and Jiang Cheng’s mouth drops open.
“Don’t tease me,” he then grumbles, but Nie Mingjue seems entirely serious.
“I am not,” Nie Mingjue tells him. “I’m only telling you the truth. I wouldn’t even have come if you weren’t here, because I have no intention of babysitting the kids. I’m here for you.”
“So you do admit they are kids and need babysitting,” Jiang Cheng says to gain some time. His head is spinning with what Nie Mingjue just said and he has no clue what to do about it, either.
“Wanyin, if this makes you uncomfortable you can say so, and I will never mention it again,” Nie Mingjue says while Jiang Cheng is still busy finding his voice but that shocks him into action.
“What? I’m not even sure what this is, how can it make me uncomfortable?” he rushes out and then nearly combusts when Nie Mingjue’s hand finds his knee in the water and squeezes it.
“Wanyin, I’ve been flirting with you for a while now,” Nie Mingjue tells him and it doesn’t sound like a joke at all. “Please tell me you noticed it?”
“I’m—not really sure,” he says, because he’s very bad at picking up cues like that. “But that’s on me!” he then immediately adds because Nie Mingjue’s face falls in ways that Jiang Cheng doesn’t like. “I’m not—I never notice things like that, especially not from people I like back, it’s a problem, both Wei Wuxian and Huaisang tease me about that all the time,” he rambles and totally misses that he gave himself away there.
“People you like back, huh,” Nie Mingjue says and leans in close. “Does that mean me?” he asks, his thumb stroking a maddening rhythm into Jiang Cheng’s knee and normally Jiang Cheng would get up and run away to hide, if only so that Nie Mingjue can’t see the ugly sides of him, but then he remembers that this is Nie Mingjue who knows all of his ugliest parts already.
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng breathes out, deciding to be brave at least this once and Nie Mingjue smiles at him.
“Nice,” he says, in a manner completely uncharacteristic to him and it makes Jiang Cheng laugh.
When Nie Mingjue leans in to kiss the laughter right out of his mouth, Jiang Cheng is the last person to complain.