Work Text:
Jiang Cheng is sitting at his favourite pier, his feet dangling in the water and for once he’s just enjoying the murmur of the water and the rustling of the wind. It’s a very good morning and Jiang Cheng already knows that he’ll slip into the water sooner or later, but for now he’s enjoying the sun too much to move.
He closes his eyes and leans back on his hands, tilting his head up to soak up the sun better and he doesn’t even feel like moving when he hears footsteps approaching him.
Jiang Cheng knows this sound by heart now, just like he could always recognise the murmur of Lotus Pier’s lake and so he simply smiles when Nie Mingjue comes to a stop behind him.
“Good morning, my heart,” Nie Mingjue mutters, before he leans down to press a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s forehead and Jiang Cheng is so happy and content he could burst with it.
This is like everything he ever wanted and some days it’s still unreal that he truly gets to have all of this.
But Nie Mingjue is warm and sturdy at his side and Jiang Cheng knows that this is all real.
“Sit down with me,” Jiang Cheng whispers and of course Nie Mingjue immediately does.
It doesn’t happen that often that they have a quiet morning like this, so of course they have to make the best of it.
Nie Mingjue sits close enough that their arms are pressed together and Jiang Cheng leans even more into his side once he is settled, even tilting his head until it can rest against Nie Mingjue’s.
“You’re relaxed, today,” Nie Mingjue says, keeping his voice down as if to not disturb the quiet morning and Jiang Cheng sighs.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jiang Cheng gives back. “It’s a relaxing morning, and everything is good. Why shouldn’t I enjoy it?”
“That wasn’t a reprimand, and you know it,” Nie Mingjue says, clearly a little bit miffed that Jiang Cheng misunderstood him and Jiang Cheng laughs slightly, finally opening his eyes.
“Of course I know it,” he says and presses a quick kiss to Nie Mingjue’s shoulder. “Good morning to you, too, by the way.” Jiang Cheng lets himself go lax against Nie Mingjue’s side once more. “I am just happy. It’s such a nice day, no pressing things are waiting for us and the water is right there.”
“You want to go for a swim,” Nie Mingjue hums and Jiang Cheng nods.
“Later. Not right now. Right now I’m very happy where I am.”
“That’s nice to hear,” Nie Mingjue says and moves to sling an arm around Jiang Cheng’s middle, pulling him even closer and Jiang Cheng allows him to do that without complaint.
It is nice, getting to spend this time with Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng still sometimes can’t believe how unbelievably lucky he got. Not only did Nie Mingjue come back from the dead somehow but he also still wanted to go on with the courtship they never really got to finish before.
“I love you,” Jiang Cheng mutters after a while, simply content to sit in silence and stare out over the water, but he feels like Nie Mingjue needs to know that.
Jiang Cheng is sure that he already does know it, but it can never hurt to say it again and again.
“I love you, too, my heart,” Nie Mingjue immediately gives back, slightly squeezing Jiang Cheng’s side.
Nie Mingjue too says it often enough that Jiang Cheng doesn’t have to doubt it for a second but it’s still always nice to hear it.
And especially since Jiang Cheng never thought they would get to where they are right now.
“I’m going for a swim,” Jiang Cheng decides, suddenly restless with all the happiness inside of him and Nie Mingjue chuckles.
“Can’t even sit still for half an hour,” he teases but he gets up just like Jiang Cheng and so he knows that Nie Mingjue will join him.
“How can anyone with the lake right there?” Jiang Cheng asks because to him it’s still unfathomable how some people cannot enjoy water and swimming.
Nie Mingjue had been apprehensive at first, mostly because he felt like he wasn’t that good of a swimmer but Jiang Cheng spent countless hours practicing with him and now it’s as if Nie Mingjue has been of Yunmeng all along.
He took to the water like fish and on good days he can almost beat Jiang Cheng in a race. Almost.
Jiang Cheng sheds his outer robe without hesitation and simply jumps in from where he’s standing. The water is blessedly cold on Jiang Cheng’s sun-heated skin and he swims down to briefly touch the ground of the lake, thanking it for still being there, before he pushes himself back up.
Nie Mingjue is still at the pier, though his outer robe is already in a heap by Jiang Cheng’s.
“Scared?” Jiang Cheng asks, absolutely teasing Nie Mingjue because they both know that he’s not scared of the lake and the water, not anymore.
“You wish,” he gives back and then jumps.
He doesn’t dive like Jiang Cheng did, but he curls up in a ball right before he hits the water and the spray hits Jiang Cheng right in the face.
Jiang Cheng splutters, but he has to laugh as well and so by the time Nie Mingjue comes back up he’s completely breathless.
And Nie Mingjue is entirely too smug.
Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at him before he pushes himself forward so fast that Nie Mingjue doesn’t have time to react and Nie Mingjue is being dunked underwater before he can avoid Jiang Cheng’s attack.
It’s his time to splutter when he comes back up.
“Rude,” he coughs out but Jiang Cheng only laughs in his face.
“You started it,” he says, absolutely no pity lost on him and then it’s on.
The splash through the water like children, each trying to dunk the other without being dragged down themselves and their laughter is ringing out over the lake.
It takes a while for them to tire themselves out but Jiang Cheng figures he can get one last good dunk in before they swim back to the pier, so he swims close to Nie Mingjue again and leans on his shoulders, effectively pushing him under.
He gives him a good shove, driving him down even farther and he half expects Nie Mingjue to yank him down by the ankle as he swims back up, but Jiang Cheng breeches the surface peacefully.
It takes him a moment to realize that Nie Mingjue is not right behind him but as soon as he notices he stops laughing.
The lake is safe—Jiang Cheng personally made sure of that, so it’s unlikely that Nie Mingjue has been attacked.
Jiang Cheng slowly counts to five but Nie Mingjue is still not resurfacing and now the worry sets in. He’ll give him another ten seconds—Nie Mingjue is a strong cultivator and can stay under for much longer than the average human—but after that Jiang Cheng will dive down and see what is going on.
So Jiang Cheng slowly counts out the numbers, his fingers tingling with worry but thankfully by the time he reaches nine he sees Nie Mingjue coming up to him.
Jiang Cheng reaches for him the moment he’s above the surface and he can tell that something must have happened because Nie Mingjue is incredibly pale.
“Let’s head back,” Jiang Cheng urges, his only goal to get Nie Mingjue out of the water and hear what happened and he knows that Nie Mingjue must be kind of shaken when he doesn’t protest and simply swims back to the pier where he immediately pulls himself out of the water and even going so far as to take a step away from the lake.
“What happened?” Jiang Cheng asks as he pulls himself out as well and Nie Mingjue lets out a shaky breath.
“Something dragged me under,” he says, his left hand around his right wrist. “There’s something in the lake.”
Jiang Cheng’s immediate reaction is to tell him that that’s impossible because this is the main lake and they check it meticulously every second day but clearly something must have happened or Nie Mingjue wouldn’t say it.
“Did you see what it was?” Jiang Cheng asks, carefully reaching for his wrist. “Are you hurt?”
“I don’t know,” Nie Mingjue says with a shake of his head. “There was just a tentacle. And it—tingles,” he breathes out and he finally takes his hand away to allow Jiang Cheng to check it over.
Jiang Cheng immediately takes his hand, turning it to see the inside of Nie Mingjue’s wrist and when he sees the mark that the tentacle left behind he starts to laugh.
“What is so funny?” Nie Mingjue grumbles out, apparently a tiny bit hurt by the fact that Jiang Cheng is laughing at him because he tacks on: “There really was something in the water!”
“I know that, my soul,” Jiang Cheng laughs out, and then presses a kiss to Nie Mingjue’s wrist.
He’s so incredibly happy he doesn’t even know how to put it into words but he knows that he has to try for Nie Mingjue’s sake.
He has to explain.
And the best way to do that is to show him his own wrist.
“What the hell,” Nie Mingjue breathes out when he sees the same mark on Jiang Cheng’s wrist that now sits on his. “I thought this was caused by Zidian or the war, maybe,” Nie Mingjue says as he moves his thumb over the mark on Jiang Cheng’s wrist. “What is going on?”
“There is something in the water,” Jiang Cheng tells him, even as he tugs him down so they can sit on the pier again.
It’s much more comfortable after all.
“But it’s not dangerous,” Nie Mingjue guesses and Jiang Cheng winces.
“It can be,” he admits. “We’re not entirely sure what exactly it is, but it’s been there since the foundation of Yunmeng Jiang, we know that much. It’s like—a guardian, probably?”
“Great guardian,” Nie Mingjue grumbles, clearly remembering how Lotus Pier burned and Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“The foundation was still there. The newer parts, and most things above the water burned, but the old parts and all the stilts were untouched. It’s the only reason I knew how to rebuild at all; the bare structure persisted. I am pretty sure it’s because of the guardian.”
“And what is this then?” Nie Mingjue asks, nodding towards their wrist and Jiang Cheng can’t help but to smile again.
“It means you’re approved of,” he says and then laughs at Nie Mingjue’s face. “It’s fallen kind of out of practice but there was this—well, initiating ritual, you could probably say. If someone ascended as a new Sect Leader, they were thrown into the lake for the guardian to judge. If they emerged without a mark, they weren’t fit to be a leader.”
“I’ve never heard of this.” Nie Mingjue frowns. “Shouldn’t word have gotten out?”
“Maybe.” Jiang Cheng shrugs. “But like I said, it’s been a long time since this was practiced. There are no real records but the consensus is that one heir wasn’t approved and decided this ritual to be useless. He stayed Sect Leader anyway and never allowed anyone to practice this ritual again.”
“Your father—”
“Certainly wasn’t approved,” Jiang Cheng finishes for him. “My mark was kind of an accident. I didn’t go looking for it,” he admits as he stares down at the mark. “I had to dive down one day to fight while we were still clearing the lake out and suddenly there was this tentacle. It didn’t hurt me, but instead it helped me and when I got back up I saw that it left this mark.”
“Which you deserve,” Nie Mingjue immediately says and drops a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s brow. “But I am no Yunmeng Sect Leader. Why was I marked?”
“You’re approved of. As my husband,” Jiang Cheng tells him with a cheeky grin. “That’s the second part; people used to make sure that their intended spouse would be good for them, that they would be approved of as well. See,” Jiang Cheng points at Nie Mingjue’s mark. “It’s slightly different. I saw one of the old records before we lost them and these two are well documented even though my father scoffed at this.”
“And your mother?” Nie Mingjue carefully asks but Jiang Cheng only huffs out a laugh.
“She might have married into Yunmeng but she was never a child of the water. I don’t think I have seen her swim even once. There was not even a chance for the guardian to mark her, if she was worthy.”
“So let me get this straight,” Nie Mingjue says, an incredibly smug look on his face. “Your ancient guardian thinks I am worthy of you and has therefore marked me as your husband?”
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng nods, unable to stop smiling and unwilling to even try.
“Perfect. We’re moving the wedding day up, I don’t care about auspicious dates.”
“You might not but Huaisang does,” Jiang Cheng reminds him and laughs when Nie Mingjue groans.
“But I want to be married now,” Nie Mingjue almost whines, as he stares down at their almost identical but still matching marks.
“You’re here, we’re together and happy. What does it matter if we marry now or wait another month?” Jiang Cheng asks and tangles their fingers together.
“I hate it when you’re right,” Nie Mingjue sighs and squeezes Jiang Cheng’s hand.
“Nah, you love me,” Jiang Cheng says with a cheeky grin and gets a kiss as reward.
“That I do.”
And that is really all Jiang Cheng ever wanted.