Chapter Text
Meng Yao had been Nie-zongzhu’s deputy for maybe three weeks, when he first met Nie Huaisang. The young master had been running along the hallways - away from his brother? - and not been looking, so it was to no surprise when he ran into Meng Yao.
The collision hadn’t been truly painful, but startling nonetheless. The scrolls Meng Yao had been holding dropped to the floor, some of them unfurling with the impact. With big, wide opened eyes he stared at the young master in front of him, before bowing low, his gaze set firmly onto the ground, flickering over the scrolls, as if to calculate any damage possible.
“Begging Nie-gongzi’s forgiveness. This Meng Yao wasn’t looking where he was going.”, he apologized, voice trying so very hard not to shake. His bow was impeccable, his manners correct, yet all about him simply screamed fear.
The aforementioned Nie-gongzi simply blinked for a few moments, eyes almost as wide as Meng Yaos, fan gripped tightly between his hands, before he shook himself out of his shock.
“Oh, you’re Da-ge's new deputy? I’ve been dying to meet you!”, he exclaimed, flipping his fan open in a smooth, singular movement. “Now, now, stop bowing, you look like a leaf shaking in the wind! What are these scrolls for anyways?”, not truly waiting for an answer, Nie-gongzi waved around with his fan, “Da-ge has been hiding you away from me, I fear! Let me get a look at you, we can’t have Meng-fushi running around like a frightened kitten now, can we?”
Once given permission to rise - phrased almost word to word like Nie-zongzhu had, funnily enough - Meng Yao immediately kneeled to collect the fallen scrolls, carefully checking if their cases had been damaged and storing those that had opened correctly once again. Gathering them up into his arms once more, he straightened, though kept his head down, now looking at the seams of Nie-gongzi’s robes.
“How old are you even? You can’t be much older than me, can you?”, with no apparent cause, Nie-gongzi let out a loud gasp, “Now, Meng-fushi, dearest, what are these robes?”, with quite a critical eye he approached him, a small frown building on his face. “This won’t do. No, not at all!”, as if stricken with great tragedy, Nie-gongzi shook his head, sighing as if burdened with all the horrible truths in the world and exhausted by them.
“This one is 16, gongzi”, Meng Yao offered with partially concealed weariness, watching the others face light up. “Gongzi needn’t concern himself with Meng Yaos robes, they’ll fit better over time.”
“16, you say? Well, then you’re just a bit older than me. All for the better, it’s been quite too long since Da-ge got me a friend my age! And our disciples are training all day long, it’s detestable!... You don’t have a saber, do you? No matter! The time you’d spent with training should rather be filled with accompanying me! I’ve no one to talk to otherwise, and Da-ge wouldn’t like it if I got bored. He says ‘nothing good ever comes out of your boredom, Huaisang. Go do your saber exercises and you won’t be bored!’”, Nie-gongzi mocked, a distorted version of Nie-zongzhus thundering voice.
“Nie-zongzhu means well, I’m sure.”, the response came hesitantly, clearly knowing it was not his place to comment on such things. While Meng Yao might’ve now been working for Nie-zongzhu, the man was still an enigma to him. Such a moral code couldn’t possibly truly exist or hold up. It simply did not seem possible.
“Bah, don’t take his side, Meng-fushi!” Nie-gongzi waved his fan around, before snapping it closed. “Now, now, come! We’ll put those silly scrolls away, and then you’ll have to tell me all about yourself.”, he got closer, and made a move, as if to link their arms together, before glaring critically wounded at the scrolls, and gently laying a hand to Meng Yao’s elbow, steering him in the direction Nie-gongzi had been fleeing from earlier.
Being so close now, Meng Yao could smell a fresh, almost earthy floral scent stemming from Nie-gongzi. That explained it.
Nie-gongzi was looking for the company of a fellow omega.