Chapter Text
~ Chapter One ~
In all honesty, Huaisang doesn’t like The Soul Cage much. He doesn’t really like any nightclubs. He prefers lounges with live bossa nova music and expensive champagne. The problem is that he doesn’t often find what he’s looking for on a Friday night in a place like that, and neither does Mian Mian.
That’s how they met, actually. All Mian Mian wanted to do was dance. Granted, the way she liked to dance would put a pole dancer to shame, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be hit on. So when Huaisang saw her trying to politely decline conversation with some ripped Adonis at the bar two years ago, Huaisang approached and slept with him for her.
Because that’s why he was there.
So it worked out well. And they’ve done the same thing ever since, every other Friday. Huaisang doesn’t care that his brother doesn’t like it (that threat of disinheriting was just him blowing off steam). He’s safe about it, and he’s honest, and he’s not ever going to lead a nation anyway. Leave the politics to the ones who care about it. He can make the world a better place in his own way.
“Can I have a Canary Yellow?” he asks, leaning over the bar counter in just the right way for his hair to drape artfully onto the lap of a six foot six cultivator with thighs that could choke a bear.
This guy is exactly his type. Down to the way he’s staring miserably into his own glass of nasty ass gin and tonic with unfocused eyes full of disillusion and heartache.
His gesture works, though; the guy glances up at him.
“Oh, sorry,” Huaisang says, sweeping his hair back behind an ear. “This thing is its own entity sometimes, I swear.”
“It’s alright,” the guy says. His eyes clear up just a bit as he focuses on Huaisang’s face. “....I’ve had worse things in my lap before, that’s for sure.”
This one is going to be too easy, and that’s great for Huaisang because he’s had a rough week and he’d rather get straight to the fun part.
“Mmmn.” Huaisang gestures toward some sleazy-looking brunette on the dancefloor, who he’s pretty certain is the reason for this poor man’s broken heart. “Would it be her? Can’t possibly be something even worse than that.”
The guy sighs, turning back to his drink. “Of all the clubs I could have picked, she shows up in this one. Let’s not talk about her, huh?”
“It was important to get that out of the way to know what I’m up against.” Huaisang pauses to thank the bartender for his drink, then turns back to the cultivator. “Have you only ever tried women?”
At that, the guy turns back to him. Gives him a once over, head to toe.
“Yeah. But you’re….”
“Close enough?” Huaisang smiles, one elbow on the bar counter, leaning in slightly.
“I was going to say beautiful,” the cultivator replies.
“That works too.” Huaisang’s fingers walk up the man’s arm. “Meisan Yu Clan, right? I hear you’re especially good at sword play. Care to show me?”
Ten minutes later, Bear Thigh’s (Huaisang still hasn’t gotten his first name, and what difference does it make, really?) gets a key to one of the private rooms upstairs at Huaisang’s suggestion. He’s getting a good feel of what Bear Thighs has to offer him tonight, and he doesn’t think he’ll be disappointed.
Another half hour proves him right about that. This man is an absolute stallion, plus he even cries at one point. Huaisang has the added pleasure of kissing away tears and numbing his distress with a few experienced tricks of his own. When they make their way back down stairs, Mian Mian is sitting at the bar counter, staring him down and shaking her head.
“Go return the keys for me, darling, will you?” Huaisang says to the cultivator, who is now putty in his hands. With that, he moves over to Mian Mian and steals a swig of her drink. Something sweet, tangy, and citrusy.
“Already ?” She asks. “We haven’t even been here an hour!”
Huaisang shrugs. “He was oozing heartache. What was I supposed to do? Ignore him? He needed me.”
“You just give it away for free!” she cries.
Now, Mian Mian doesn’t mean this in the judgy, conservative way that Huaisang’s aunt would mean it. She’s totally good with his approach to sex. He wouldn’t marry the cook who made him a noodle bowl before eating the noodles, so why does he need to marry the guy who gives him an orgasm?
No. What she means is that he should start a business. She’s that sex-positive.
He sighs. “Mian Mian…”
“Listen. Just think about it for once, okay? Stop dismissing it out of hand. I’m smart. I have great ideas. You could make a killing doing what you love. If you just try it, you’ll be thanking me from your throne of gold in three to five years. Trust me.”
Huaisang looks over at his latest victim, who actually is kind of more like a patient he’s just revived.
“I genuinely enjoy helping them, though,” he says, musingly. “Look at him. Look at how much calmer and confident he looks. Isn’t it wrong to charge for that? Especially when I’m already using it to my own benefit.”
“Is it wrong when a therapist charges, even if the human interaction benefits them?” Mian Mian demands.
And well, she’s got him there. While most people simply assume they’re smarter than Huaisang, Mian Mian actually is. The pair of them are still pegged as airheads though, and they’ve both decided they can also use that to their advantage. Let the whole lot of them underestimate their capabilities.
“Okay. Let’s just say I could actually make a living off of this. How do you imagine it will go? I have an office and advertise on billboards?” He asks. “I can see it now. Me up there beneath bright lights in some booty shorts advertising my weird talent for sexual healing. Bring on all the stalkers and creeps.”
“No no….you do it discreetly,” she says, and then flips her phone over to him. On it, Huaisang sees a website (complete with a login button and membership fee agreement) that explains “those who would like the comfort and health benefits of no-strings-attached sex” need only purchase an annual membership to book Huaisang two nights every month.
A premium membership gives them three nights, plus a free t-shirt.
Huaisang feels his nose scrunch up like a confused rabbit, and then he bursts into laughter. “Oh my god, you designed a website? Is this thing published?” He scrolls through more and realizes there are already nearly 1000 likes. “What the… okay, there has to be some kind of screening process, miss manager. I’m picky and delicate.”
“The membership is only open to those who apply. The application includes an STD screening, background check, blah blah blah, you know I have this covered!” She says, indignant. “I’m not an idiot. Besides, we’re trying to make premium money here. Only the best. With the biggest - ”
“Cocks?” Huaisang asks, hopefully.
“Wallets . I’m taking a cut - don’t argue. Very modest 10%. Nothing more and nothing less than my business acumen deserves.”
“You can have 20% if this actually makes us a running profit. I don’t care.” he takes another sip of his drink, trying hard to pretend like he doesn’t notice Mr. Bear Thighs giving him hopeful glances from the sidelines. They’ve done their thing and it’s time to move on. Which reminds him…
“Fine, let’s try it. But multiple sessions? You know I have my one and done rule for a reason.” He flicks his eyes to the corner, indicating Bear Thighs. “I don’t need anyone getting attached.”
“Attachment is sort of the name of the game in business,” Mian Mian argues. “If you sell anything only once, it limits your market share. You need a product that keeps them coming back for more. Either something that you can purchase over and over again, or something that comes in multiple variations - assuming the same customer will want more than one variation. You’re in category A. Or, your services, I should say.”
Huaisang scoffs. “I know you probably don’t understand this, my sweet innocent friend, but I definitely come in multiple variations. My services and my outfits.”
That actually gets Mian Mian to snort right into her Lotus Sunset.
“Alright, you got me there. I bow to your superior knowledge.”
Huaisang sighs. “I guess the fact that they have to schedule appointments and pay will help curb any delusions that it’s an actual romantic relationship.”
He tosses back a swing of his Canary Yellow, then holds his hand out to Mian Mian. “Okay. Let’s do this. I’ll let you handle the website, the screening process and all that. But if anyone creepy or smelly shows up, I’ll never trust you again. … Add a note about personal hygiene in there.”
“Honey ,” she says, with a smile he can see the dollar signs in. “I got this.”
They clink their glasses together, drink until the bottoms are up, and then kiss the backs of each other’s knuckles. That’s how they always seal the deal when they agree to start something. For luck.
It’s never failed them.
***
Jiang Cheng is pissed. It’s a late Saturday morning, and all he wanted to do was go to Costco so he could catch a few glimpses of the cute twink who works there. But his brother is a nosy, meddling asshole and intercepted him in the garage before he could even unlock his purple Corvette Stingray.
“You don’t even know their name,” Wuxian reminds him. “And it’s not like you’re going to ask them. Stop torturing yourself. We’re getting boba milk tea instead.”
Wuxian hates Costco and won’t step foot inside, so he’s never even seen the sweet little tartlette and doesn’t fucking understand what the big deal is, and he certainly doesn’t understand how badly he’s just ruined Jiang Cheng’s entire weekend.
“You are so pathetic,” Wuxian tells him, dragging him across the house to his own car. It’s black and basic and stupid. “You can’t keep popping boners over getting your water scanned with the little scanny wand thing. Come on. At least the boba will love you back.”
“I hate you,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, shoving the seatbelt into his buckle. “And stop revving the engine. You’re being obnoxious to the neighbors.”
“They like it!” chirps Wuxian.
He’s probably right, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t have to admit that even to his own damn self.
“I hate boba,” he says, ten minutes later as they enter the little shop.
“I know, I know,” Wuxian says. “That’s why you always get the large and finish all of it.”
Wuxian cheerily greets the little girl at the counter in her ridiculous pink striped hat while Jiang Cheng looks over the wall menu for something that doesn’t have the words “unicorn” or “sparkles” or “kawaii” in it.
Of course Wuxian orders something that takes him five minutes to say “with extra fairy dust clouds, please. And whipped cream.”
Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes so hard he wonders if they’ll pop out of his head and bounce across the floor.
Pink striped hat girl looks to him with raised eyebrows, finger hovering over her iPad screen expectantly.
“Large black tea with honey boba,” he mumbles. The cakes in this place’s pastry display case look like they’ll give a person diabetes in one sitting.
“Oh! And two tea cakes, please,” Wuxian adds.
“Oh! A’Xian! Over here!”
Jiang Cheng’s glare slices across the room to the girl waving her arms around at a table.
“Fuck it all to hell,” Jiang Cheng mutters. Lan Wangji is sitting with this girl, which means Wuxian will now insist they all have to sit together like happy ass party friends.
Wuxian has a massive crush on Lan Wangji. A crush he refuses to acknowledge or voice but which is evident to everyone with half a brain in a three mile radius. If Wangji is in the vicinity, Wuxian stares at him with puppy eyes, ignoring everyone and everything else. It’s nauseating. Almost as nauseating is Wuxian’s inability to admit it. Or do anything about it. Even though Wangji pretty much reciprocates.
Of course, Jiang Cheng can’t be absolutely sure because Wangji has a max word limit of 9 per day and likes to pretend he’s above breathing or laughing or any other normal human activity but Jiang Cheng has caught him looking back with something like quiet longing when Wuxian bounces off somewhere.
Mian Mian is the girl’s name. Jiang Cheng is pretty sure they’ve seen her hanging around Lan Wangji before, but there doesn’t seem to be any romantic chemistry between them. Actually, they’re so opposite from one fanother that Jiang Cheng can’t even imagine how they became friends, and quite frankly, he doesn’t give a rat's ass about either of them.
He checks his Marine Star Bulova watch and feels a vein bulge in his temple. Even if he left now, his little Costco tartlet will have already ended his shift. His weekend is officially a fucking bust, and he’s going to pulverize Wei Wuxian with a healthy round of sword sparring when they get back.
He finishes his stupid, overly sweet tea and honey boba, then leans his chin in his hand. He hasn’t been listening to Mian Mian and Wuxian and their frivolous conversation this whole time, but his ears twitch in their direction like antennae when he catches something about sex and money.
“So your new job is pimping out your friend?” Wuxian asks.
“It’s not exploitative ,” Mian Mian protests, scandalized. “It’s a mutual profit-sharing business. Two owners. Two consenting employees. A partnership.”
“He must be a stud?” Wuixan asks, and completely misses the cold anger that sweeps across Lan Wangji’s face.
Mian Mian giggles. “No. He’s pretty. ”
And then she turns her phone screen around and Jiang Cheng sputters and chokes and tapers off into a coughing fit even though his drink is gone because that is his Costco boy!
“He’s a prostitute ??” Jiang Cheng demands. It just comes out of his mouth. He doesn’t even think about how maybe he shouldn’t have said it until it’s too late.
He looks at Wuxian in a panic. But Wuxian, the idiot, is casting uncertain glances toward Wangji. Wangji looks like he’s trying to freeze his glass of boba into solid ice with the power of his gaze alone.
Mian Mian looks at Jiang Cheng like she’s just now realizing he’s even there. “He’s not a prostitute. He practices sexual healing.”
Beside him, Wuxian is poking a finger into Wangji’s arm. “Lan Zhan?”
“Sexual healing ?” Jiang Cheng snorts out.
“Impossible,” Wangji mutters.
“It’s part of a broader movement to decouple sex and shame. Sex is a natural human desire, and we should feel no more secrecy around it than we do around food or water or air,” Mian Mian pronounces. She watches Jiang Cheng like she’s sizing up a stag she has her arrow trained on.
It makes Jiang Cheng realize how obviously worked up he’s getting about this, and he can’t let any of them figure out it’s personal.
“Whatever,” he growls, looking away. Sounds like prostitution to him, and he wishes it didn’t pierce so much. Fucking Wuxian is right. He never even had the balls to ask him for his name, and now he learns what it is from his pimp of a friend who is evidently besties with fucking Lan Wangji of all people.
Huaisang. His name is Huaisang, and even that is perfect.
Jiang Cheng hates his life.
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Mian Mian says.
Wangji makes a sound of indignant protest.
“I know you won’t - and that’s fine,” Mian Mian tells him, like she’s soothing something wild. “I fully respect demisexuality. But for others….” she casts an appraising gaze at Jiang Cheng. “It’s a good way to explore safely. …no pressure, you know?”
Jiang Cheng refuses to meet her gaze. If she’s trying to sell to him, she’s got the wrong guy completely. Jiang Cheng doesn’t need sexual healing. He’s never even had sex! Why would he need healing from it already!?
“Whoa, what is wrong with everyone?” Wuxian asks, poking Jiang Cheng’s red cheek.
Jiang Cheng slaps his hand away, standing up too suddenly and knocking his chair over.
Wuxian laughs, leaning over to pick it up for him, but Jiang Cheng has had enough.
“I’ll be in the car,” he grumbles.
“Wait!” that girl - Mian Mian - says, shoving a business card into his hand.
The Golden Canary - Caged in Pleasure
Your Membership - Your Key! Unlock your healing today!
thegoldencanary.com
All inquiries welcome.
The card is glittering and Jin Clan gold and all Jiang Cheng can do is take it and hurry out the door.
~*~*~*~
Wuxian yaks his mouth off all the way home, talking about Lan Zhan this and Lan Zhan that and did Jiang Cheng think Lan Zhan was mad about something?
“I’m sure he was absolutely peachy,” Jiang Cheng snaps.
“Really? Huh. It seemed like he was annoyed about something. Maybe I’m just overthinking it. He seemed kind of bothered. I know he’s usually stoic but this wasn’t his normal stoic, or even his happy stoic, or even the stoic that comes when he’s studying his cello etudes really hard. This was like bad stoic. I felt that.”
“Oh my god,” Jiang Cheng mutters, turning his whole body to face out the window. Wuxian was the valedictorian of their class and he’s so stupid .
“Maybe I should call him when we get home. You know. Just to check on him. Oh! Text might be better. It will give him a chance to think before he replies. You’re an awkward introvert, A’Cheng, you’d probably prefer to text, right? But that could be cowardly. Maybe I should just show up! I owe him a meal anyway for helping me when that angry goat rammed me in the ass.”
Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what on earth to say to this except to remind Wuxian that he’s an asshole who bothers people left and right and Wangji hasn’t murdered him yet so that’s probably a sign of true love or some shit.
“L-love? Jiang Cheng, I think that boba went to your head! Ha ha ha…”
But for the rest of the drive, Wuxian is uncharacteristically quiet. He turns on some kind of loud and aggressively cheerful pop music and Jiang Cheng is left alone with his thoughts.
His Costco boy is an online… streetwalker. A hooker. A rent boy.
Jiang Cheng really wishes he hated that. He wishes it was gross or at least unappealing. But no. No. His cock has other ideas. And when he gets into his room, the first thing he does is type thegoldencanary.com into his computer browser and hit go.
Obstacle after annoying obstacle comes up first:
Are you 19+?
Enable cookies.
User agreement.
Enable pop-ups.
He’s ready to throw his laptop out the window and watch it crash by the time he gets to the actual content.
Fuck though… is it ever content.
The image of Huaisang (that’s his name; it took Jiang Cheng no time to cement that into his brain) on the home page already has him hard. On his knees in black shorts and a cherry red top, his long hair decorated with thin braids pulled back on each side like a halo around his head and opalescent tinsel in the rest, falling down his back. He’s facing away, but turned looking over his shoulder, holding a clearly saliva-laved red sucker against his tongue between parted lips.
He gets off right away, just looking at that one.
Then again. Slower, so that he can savor. Imagine. Imagine himself holding that hair in one fist and shoving his finger into Huaisang’s mouth with the other as he buries himself in that luscious ass.
Yeah, Jiang Cheng needs to fuck this boy. HOW can he fuck this boy?
He could always…. But what if MianMian monitors his customers? Better to just stick with his imagination for a bit.
He realizes then that he can’t go anywhere else on the site without creating a free account. He goes through the motions much more patiently this time, but he can feel his stomach stirring again with the anticipation of what the other content might be. An anonymous email gets him access to a single page that has a non-sensitive bio of Huaisang (Jiang Cheng is relieved to see he’s already 23) and a little horrified at himself for the fuzzy feeling in his chest when he learns that he’s only 5’3” and 117 lbs. Jiang Cheng could fuck him standing up without even having to set him down or lean him against the wall for balance.
In addition to that is a small portfolio of more photos, and a description of his services, purpose, and mission statement.
To provide the lonely bachelors of the world with a willing and able bottom, mouth, hand….additional, more creative options available for those who qualify. ;)
The mission statement is included underneath a very suggestive image of Huaisang’s hand holding, of all things, a banana.
I aim to satisfy all of my customers without pressure, shame, or discrimination. My natural talents as a healer often come into play during your experience so that you may escape from your physical and emotional wounds. Our provider/customer relationship will be built on privacy, intimacy, and above all, mutual respect.
Emotional wounds…..privacy? Intimacy….
Mutual respect.
…hookers talk like this? Really?
Jiang Cheng had been imagining something very different when he visited this site. But now he looks at it with new eyes.
It is more than my job, more than my career, to offer this to you. Sexual healing is truly my calling. Let me help you. I promise I can.
Yours, Huaisang.
With his pulse thundering in his ears, Jiang Cheng’s swallows hard. And it isn’t lust this time, but… something scarily vulnerable.
How can that have possibly made him want this boy more? Jiang Cheng does not like to get close to people, does not like to feel vulnerable.
And yet here he is, reading through the application requirements. He cannot stay anonymous. He has to give his full name, his birthdate, his address. He cannot be married. He must submit to a full STD testing panal that will be sent out to a third party lab. He must provide his photo, submit to a full background check, and write a letter of intent. There is also a form to be completed only after he passes all of that, in which he can provide any details, desires, heartaches, fetishes, kinks, triggers and anything else he wants Huaisang to know before booking an appointment.
What. The. Fuck.
He wonders how many people actually go through all this, and then realizes that the site boasts a whopping 11.5k following, and an application submission rate that calls for a one to two week turnaround time. Didn’t Mian Mian say she just launched it last week!?
Alright. Alright. He forces himself to breathe. He can only accomplish this by resting his forehead on his desk (so he can’t see pictures of Huaisang anymore).
This is… going to require a lot of thinking.
He needs to be careful. He can't just go and do this. Tests and applications and fees and appointments don’t mean there isn't any risk involved. And those risks aren't just physical ones. The emotional - he shudders - ones…they would be even worse.
Dependency. He gets attached easily and he hates it. He cried for a whole day the first time his mother left him with his father so she could go on a business trip to Swahili. He knew Wuxian was his brother when they met, even though they were both five years old at the time (Wuxian was adopted).
He’s never actually slept with anyone. He could get…dependent. Quickly.
Maybe he should sleep with someone else first?
Jiang Cheng growls and lifts his head. How the hell did that make any sense? Sometimes he wishes he wasn’t smart enough to see how fucking dumb he was.
The thing is… he can say this in his comments, right? Surely he’ll pass the screenings, and then he can make it clear that he doesn’t want anything emotional. If Huaisang is as good as he says, it should be raw, animalistic fucking. That’s all. He doesn’t want to talk. He could barely even manage the “thank you” he’d mumbled out to Huaisang last Spring, when Jiang Cheng had picked up a cake from Costco for Yanli’s birthday and dropped the fucking thing when Huaisang came out from behind the bakery counter. He had just clocked out for the day, but he was still kind enough to put his apron back on and redecorate it for Jiang Cheng right then and there.
He’d had small, glittering rhinestones on the outside corners of his eyes that day, and something about it drove Jiang Cheng crazy with want for him.
Jesus fuck, what if Huaisang recognizes him as the brooding weirdo in the grocery store?
Jiang Cheng knows he’s a brooding weirdo, no matter what Wuxian says.
“You just need to lighten up on yourself,” he’d told Jiang Cheng one day. It was the first day of middle school, and Wuxian had placed first in the fencing tournament. Lan Wangji was second. Jiang Cheng was third, which was just as bad as being last. “You get stuck in your own head! You’re actually pretty good at fighting, when you stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking.”
Which had just made Jiang Cheng feel worse. Needing encouragement made it seem like, in addition to being a kicked puppy, he was also missing one eye and one leg.
He had never gotten better at not caring what everyone else was thinking, but he did get better at proving to himself and everyone else that he truly was good at fighting. Was it so far-fetched to think he might be good at sex, too? That’s also a physical endeavor.
The thing is, Jiang Cheng will die a virgin if he doesn’t do something. The chances of him actually romancing and seducing anyone, especially someone beautiful and cute and talented and sweet and smart like Huaisang, is in the negative percentiles. This is the only avenue he can take to sleep with someone he wants this badly, and he’s going to take it.
Because he has a credit card in his own name with a limit higher than God. His father is well-off, and generous with him and Wuxian and especially with Yanli. She has two cards: one for emergencies and one for fun. Technically, Jiang Cheng’s is for emergencies, but he’s never broken the rule. Ever. Now is the time. And really, isn't the threat of perpetual virginity its own kind of emergency? It feels that way to him.
He takes some time to look through Huaisang’s portfolio photos again, getting himself so hard at the idea of actually touching him that the arousal overpowers the anxiety long enough for him to breeze through all the necessary paperwork.
When the paperwork is finished, he does have a minor panic attack and needs his inhaler but after that, he tells himself that everything will be fine and that at the end of this trial will be a reward.
A reward with long black hair, a butt he could eat breakfast off of, and a mouth red as sin.
Yeah. Jiang Cheng made the right choice.
~*~*~*~
“But you don't even like Costco!” Jiang Cheng shouts, following Wuxian down the stairs.
“So what?” Wuxian asks, full of annoying cheer. “They have a sale on chocolate right now.”
”You don’t like chocolate!”
Wuxian ignores this point entirely. Typical. “You don’t like shopping! And yet, away you go. Like a little lost bird, trying to fly for his purpose in life. Is it amongst the trash bags? The bulk hard boiled eggs? The cheese, perhaps?”
Jiang Cheng growls. “Just let me go by myself.”
Why did Wuxian insist on tagging along, today of all days? It’s Thursday. Jiang Cheng can’t pass up a chance at seeing Huaisang in his apron. He can’t. No way.
“Come on, you idiot.” Wuxian’s smile is still firmly in place. “Going to Costco together is the brotherly thing to do. Braving the big boxes and the lines and the crowds. And those rolly cart things! Can’t forget those! The way they murder your ankles? Priceless. Nothing else compares.”
“Oh my god,” Jiang Cheng mutters. What did he do to deserve this?
It occurs to him rather quickly, as they’re flying down the freeway with Wuxian’s mouth going fast enough to break the speedometer, that this sudden interest in Costco and sale chocolates has something to do with Lan Wangji. He starts up a game with himself, counting each and every time that Wuxian says Wangji’s name. He gets to 72 by the time they pull into the parking lot.
“And then Wangji - ” Wuxian actually breaks into something akin to giggles here. “Then Wangji overturned that guy’s test tube! He tried to pretend it was an accident, but I know he did it on purpose. That Xi Jiao is a fucking prick. Tried to touch Mian Mian’s butt in Bio 101. I know he did it on purpose. That’s Wangji. Silent and fatal.”
Fatally attractive to you , Jiang Cheng thinks but is too kind to say.
Speaking of which…
He’s on high alert as soon as they enter the building. It’s a little overwhelming to think that if Wuxian sees Huaisang, he might recognize him from the picture Mian Mian showed off. And if Huaisang’s around, Jiang Cheng will undoubtedly become dumb as a caveman and silent as an ox and Wuxian will know for sure that he’s looking at the one and only “Costco Crush.”
When they make it to the bakery, Wuxian is immediately sidetracked by a display of Easter cupcakes decorated with white rabbits, and Jiang Cheng is free to case the joint, but Huaisang is not there.
A break, maybe?
He works every Thursday. He has worked every Thursday for the past three years.
His shift is from noon to 8pm. Jiang Cheng discovered this not because he’s a creep! He’s not. He just figured it out based on the times of day when Huaisang came into Costco in a pristine apron and came out in a flour-stained one.
Jiang Cheng has had a lot of fantasies about that apron. He knows it very well. White. Short. Ties in the back that Huaisang always ties into a neat, pretty bow. Jiang Cheng has undone them slowly, quickly, with his teeth, has watched Huaisang undo them for him…
In the middle of these thoughts, Huaisang appears behind a glass case full of macarons, and Jiang Cheng nearly has a heart attack.
“I’m taking my break,” Huaisang calls out, making Jiang Cheng start to sweat as he tugs lose his apron bow.
Some asshole employee pops out behind the bread counter. “Want to go together again?”
“I need to get some… party favors. Take your lunch with Xui Li,” Huaisang says back, folding his apron.
“I can help you pick out party favors,” the annoying bread boy says, hopefully.
“No.” Huaisang says flatly. “I told you before, one and done. I’m not changing my mind, so stop trying.”
Jiang Cheng flips away to face a row of cold cut trays as Huaisang comes out from behind the counter and starts off toward the front of the store. When he’s passed, Jiang Cheng sets a salami stick down he didn’t know he had grabbed up and follows at a safe distance.
His heart pounds, hard and fast, but he can’t look away from that hair. Those glittering earrings. Jiang Cheng sees that they’re actual diamonds. His father is a jeweler - a good one. Jiang Cheng knows real when he sees it. Why does Huaisang work at Costco if he’s loaded?
Jiang Cheng begins to think - to feel - that the mission statement on his website could actually be…true.
Huaisang just wants to help people.
Huaisang turns into the pharmacy section, which is… weird. He’d told bread boy he was getting party favors. What could he possibly-
When he casually peeks down the aisle Huaisang is in, he realizes it’s stacked with party-sized boxes of condoms and value packs of lube. Jiang Cheng audibly gasps and then flattens himself against the endcap to hide. Huaisang doesn’t seem to notice, though, he simply stuffs two huge boxes of each under his arms and makes his way to the pharmacy register.
“Hey, Huaisang,” the clerk says, then laughs as he starts ringing up his items. “Um… afraid you’ll run out? Jesus.”
Huaisang doesn’t look embarrassed in the least. “Party favors. For a bachelorette party. Lots of single women going.”
“Ooohhhhh,” the clerk laughs. “For a second there, I thought you were a prostitute or something on the side.”
“So what if I were?” Huaisang fans himself with one limp-wristed hand, painted nails shining under the fluorescent lights. “Sex workers are deserving of respect and healthcare just like Costco clerks with bad dye jobs.”
There’s nothing but stunned silence after this comment.
Huaisang leaves a few bills on the counter and tucks his boxes under his arms, turning toward the exit.
But he’s delicate and small-boned. Like a beautifully plumed bird. And one box starts to slip. He stumbles, catching it before it falls, in between his tricep and his thigh. But it’s precarious. One wrong move and -
Before he knows it, Jiang Cheng is there at his side, catching one box and taking it carefully in the crook of one arm.
There are so many people buzzing around them, but when Huaisang straightens up and looks up at him, they all become a muted blurr. Jiang Cheng has never been this close to him before. Not standing face to face, at least. He realizes he never even questioned if anything in Huaisang’s bio was true, but he is still a little blown away by his height in person. The boots he’s wearing have to boost him a good three inches at least, and Jiang Cheng is still towering over him.
Huaisang has eyeliner today with faint gold highlight on his cheeks and he smells like sugar and butter and his lips are full and glossy and he has the faintest dabble of freckles across his cheekbones and nose that he’d never known existed before.
Something in Jiang Cheng….slips. Somehow. Into a different place than it was before. And he feels like a whole new person. Like the him of before and the him of now are separated by something huge and inescapable.
“Well, aren’t you just the knight in shining armor I needed right then,” Huaisang says, looking into Jiang Cheng’s eyes like he can see his soul. Nobody looks at Jiang Cheng like that. Not like they can see him. Not like they would want to see more.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what to say at all. His mouth has gone dry and his brain is screaming something loud but wordless.
“Strong and silent?” Huaisang asks, with a gentle smile. “I like that. Come on. My car is outside.”
So Jiang Cheng follows, still not talking, but fucking following Huaisang out of Costco at Huaisang’s request with a box of condoms in his goddamn arms. It’s the most action he’s ever gotten and his heart might explode if he doesn’t calm down somehow. But how the fuck can he?! Shit is happening . Maybe Wuxian is his good luck charm!
Huaisang’s car turns out to be a tiny banana-yellow thing with an expensive-ass engine and deluxe trim… yeah, he’s not working for the money. No way. If anything, he donates his Costco paychecks to charity. Or uses them just to buy all the lube and condoms he must go through? Jiang Cheng carefully takes the other box from him, settling it gingerly into the trunk of his car. He doesn’t want to touch anything of Huaisang’s that he’s not supposed to. Not his girlish waist and not his car’s gleaming chrome tailpipes.
“Thank you for your service, soldier,” Huaisang says, with a teasing little flutter of his eyelashes. That gold is so pretty…
“Okay, you’re not really silent, are you?” Huaisang asks. He sounds somewhat concerned.
“Huh?!” Jiang Cheng asks, startling so badly that he jumps.
Awesome. Fucking Rico Suave isn’t he? God, he’s going to crash and burn before he’s even had a conversation, much less a date.
“I was asking what your name was,” Huaisang says.
“Uh, I--I’m, ah--”
“Jiang Cheng !” Wuxian shouts from somewhere behind him.
He startles again, and he’s pretty sure Huaisang thinks he’s touched in the head by this point, but he can’t let Wuxian see him and then start squawking about seeing his picture on a website.
“Sorry, I have to go,” he says, then turns and sprints to intercept Wuxian before he can make the connection.
He takes Wuxian by the jacket collar - the thing is red and huge, like Wuxian’s trying to look taller and bigger and stronger than he already fucking is, annoying prick - and drags him physically back into the store before the unthinkable should happen. Wuxian has a photographic memory. He would remember Huaisang’s face and he would say something. He’s physically incapable of filtering himself.
“Why would you be out here? Who was that? Does he go to our school? Why were you putting things into his car? Are you dealing drugs? Listen, you know I have to tell Dad if you’re dealing drugs. I don’t care if it’s just weed. Wait. Of course you’re not dealing. Were you buying drugs though? Because there are way better ways to deal with anxiety. Like fucking having a date every now and then. There’s a dance coming up and - ”
Jiang Cheng shoves a sample into Wuxian’s mouth just to shut him up.
“Mmgh!” He buzzes angrily at first, then moves the morsel around in his mouth. His expression brightens.
“What the hell?” Jiang Cheng asks, looking into the basket.
Wuxian had added the case of bunny cupcakes, a solid milk chocolate bunny, a hollow dark chocolate bunny, an oversized bunny squishmellow, bunny band-aids, and, on top of everything, a bunny ear headband. Jiang Cheng can SEE his trajectory in the store.
“I’m not allowed to buy anything festive?” Wuxian asks, looking away. “Easter is an important cultural and religious holiday…celebrated the world over…the resurrection of the Messiah…and all that…”
“You’re an athiest!”
“Atheist is such a strong word, Jiang Cheng,” Wuxian says reproachfully, hurriedly shoving his purchases onto a long conveyor belt. “I prefer….skeptic. Scholarly skeptic. Who knows? Maybe if something - ” he hiccups. “Good. Happens to me, I could even be pushed into agnostic territory!”
He swipes his card and then shoves the boxes back into their huge Costco basket as fast as humanly possible.
Jiang Cheng waits until they’re in the car, then turns towards Wuxian and stares him down. Wuxian pretends like he doesn’t notice, watching the sea of shoppers coming and going, brushing his nose.
“It has nothing to do with Easter, does it?” Jiang Cheng finally says. “It’s all about the bunnies. Because Lan Wangji basically lives on a bunny farm. All that shit back there,” he waves his hand toward the full back seat. “It’s for him.”
Wuxian swallows, looking away.
“He likes bunnies. It's not…I’m not trying to…we aren't even…”
“It’s fine,” Jiang Cheng grunts, turning over the engine and snapping his seatbelt into the buckle with a hard click. “He’ll appreciate it. In his… silent way.”
It’s really weird being next to Wuxian and experiencing the absence of chatter all at the same time. It’s actually a little concerning. Wuxian has fallen hard and fast and it’s not like how Jiang Cheng deals with it at all. He doesn’t want to be vulnerable and admit that he’s fallen for anyone, not even to himself. Even now, there’s a part of his mind screaming that it’s not true and making excuses.
No, Wuxian is not afraid of vulnerability. The idiot honestly seems like he doesn’t understand that he has fallen.
“About that stupid dance coming up--” Jiang Cheng starts.
Wuixian snaps back to frustrating cheeriness. “Want me to set you up? There’s this girl in my world history class, she’s a science major, so she’s smart, you know? And--”
“You know I’m not going to some stupid dance. Not with her, not with anyone,” Jiang Cheng snaps. “You should go with Wangji. Or, be more mature about it, and instead of some corny ass college ritual that people with no lives flock to, take him out on a real date somewhere. Then he won’t wonder if you’re only asking him out of necessity to attend the prom or whatever.”
From the corner of his eye, he sees Wuxian flicking his nose again. He looks pouty and like he’s about to make excuses.
“For fuck’s sake, aren’t you the one who is always on my case all the time about putting myself out there to date? So either take your own advice or go fuck yourself and stop hounding me about it!!”
Wuxian laughs, patting Jiang Cheng’s arm like he’s a toddler running off without his mother and then tripping on his shoelace.
“You gotta relax, Jiang Cheng,” he says. “Your blood pressure is going to be through the roof if you keep up that way.”
Jiang Cheng makes a grunting sort of non-answer.
They drive in silence for a little while, and then Wuxian says suddenly:
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll ask out Wangji on a real date - ”
”About time.”
” - IF you also find a date to that dance. You need to get out more. This is the first time you’ve left the house in days, and it’s with me.” Wuxian laughs, like he’s a ridiculous person to spend time with.
“I hate school functions,” Jiang Cheng mutters. “Even if I had someone I wanted to take, I’d want to take them somewhere else.”
“That works!” Wuxian says cheerfully, so loud that Jiang Cheng startles and nearly rear-ends the white corvette ahead of him. “Oh my god, you didn’t say no right off the bat! That’s a huge step for you, Jiang Cheng! I’m so proud!”
Jiang Cheng glares at him, but Wuxian goes on unfazed.
“Okay, so going somewhere else is actually a better idea. Let’s see…there’s the standard movie and dinner, there’s ice skating - very romantic, and lots of excuses to touch and hold onto them, especially if they can’t skate - hmm, there’s also walks in the park - you could make her think you’re super deep and poetic and reflective….oh! You could take her to a couple’s spa! That’s super romantic. And you can flash how you’re super loaded. Take her to an exclusive one! Or - ”
“You can date a boy but I can’t?” Jiang Cheng demands.
Before he realizes what he’s done, Wuxian carries on.
“Of course you can! Jiang Cheng, are you part of the bi club ?? Could it be that you’ve graduated to some semblance of cool?”
“God, don’t you ever shut up?”
“Don’t you have any balls?”
“Fine!” Jiang Cheng rages, tires squealing as he cuts into their driveway. “Fine. You ask Wangji out, I’ll ask… someone out. Happy? Now get all this bunny shit out of my car before I throw up.”
Wuxian gasps dramatically, getting out of the passenger seat and standing with the door open, centimeters from Dad’s Escalade. Jiang Cheng will murder him if he scratches it. He swears to god he will.
“If you ruin these festive Easter gifts, I will challenge you to a duel in front of the school and make you suffer for it, Jiang Cheng - and I’ll say that you’re dateless in the podcast! You know I would!”
Wuxian does the school podcast in school every day. No one likes to talk more than he does. No one .
“And I’ll tell them the same!” He shoves the giant ass squishmellow into Wuxian’s arms, then thinks better of it and stalks over to Wuxian’s car.
“What are you doing?” Wuxian demands. “Jiang Cheng--”
Jiang Cheng grabs a handful of fluffy bunny fuckery and shoves it into the back seat. “You’re going to take all of this stuff to Wangji now, because I don’t want to see it anymore.”
“I will not!” Wuxian shouts, hurrying over and pulling the stuff out again. He looks like a deranged version of an Easter bunny: long hair, black clothes, eyeliner, pierced ears…arms full of brightly colored stuffies and candy and ribbons. “I need to get a basket for everything and arrange it! He can’t just see everything in its plain packaging! This is why you’re dateless. You have no idea what to do.”
Jiang Cheng storms off after that, feeling those words too sharply. They slice through him one by one… too true.
You have no idea what to do.
He doesn’t stop to greet his parents, who probably don’t even notice he’s come home anyway, and goes straight into his room.
The thing is, he does want to ask Huaisang out. He wants to ask him out with smooth, irresistible confidence. And he wants Huaisang’s pretty face to light up, and maybe even flush a bit, as he admits that he’s been watching Jiang Cheng with longing for the entire three years that Jiang Cheng has been drowning in obsession.
He wants, but he doesn’t. Because Huaisang is evidently very popular with tops. He has his pick, and apparently doesn’t do the relationship thing.
….One and done. So stop trying…
Had Huaisang slept with the bread boy? The guy was handsome, tall, and muscular. Clearly smitten. They must spend a lot of time together, considering they’re co-workers. And still, Huaisang is not moved to give up the queue of men applying for the hopes of feeling his touch, even once.
Well, Huaisang surely has impossibly high standards. After all his experience. He’s probably seen and done everything there is to do, and probably has had the best of the best. And he’s got all the money and time he could need or want already so what is anyone else going to offer him? Only sex. And how is Jiang Cheng The Virgin going to compete with that?
God, he’s such an idiot. Should never have agreed to this fucking deal with Wuxian. He’s so stupid.
He shoves his headphones on, jams the button for AFI, and tries to ignore the dumpster his life has become.
When he’s feeling less volatile, he switches on his laptop with the goal of bringing up Huaisang’s photos again. He needs to release all this indecision and tension. But before he can go to the bookmark for the site, an email notification pings in the corner of his screen. He jolts up straight when he sees it’s a return email for his application status to thegoldencanary.com.
Congratulations!
Your preliminary application has been approved by The Golden Canary!
Here are your next steps:
Please click this link to schedule your appointment for STD screening. Please note that all STD screens must result in a clear, negative test for all diagnoses before scheduling a healing session.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
They have availability as early as tomorrow morning, and that’s perfect because Wuxian will be busy. No one will even know he left the house.
He schedules it mindlessly, like his hand is moving on its own. Then he throws himself back onto his bed and covers his eyes with one arm. He’s too wracked with nerves now to even get himself off.
Fuck. If he goes through with this… no. No. When he goes through with it, he hopes his body won’t fail him this way.
If it did… would Huaisang be upset? Disappointed? Somehow… Jiang Cheng doesn’t think so. If anything, he’d probably be relieved. One less schmuk to screw. …but no. Huaisang wouldn’t be that way about it. He’d probably be kind about it. Understanding. Gentle. …probably talk to Jiang Cheng. Ask him questions about what he needed. Or wanted. Or didn’t want.
“Mmgh,” he chokes out, his hand reaching down to slip beneath his waistband.
….god, Jiang Cheng is such a goner.
~*~*~*~
He gets off on Nie Huaisang (Jiang Cheng caught his last name on his Costco badge that day. He couldn’t remember his own name, but he sure as hell caught everything about Huaisang’s) seven times in three days. It’s a new record. And instead of getting less appealing, he gets more . It’s like Jiang Cheng’s body is becoming conditioned to respond to the image of Huaisang with a raging erection and a pounding heart.
And then it happens. The confirmation email. He actually cuts class in the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to rush home when he opens it and sees that, of course, his test came back with a clear negative result, and the schedule was open to him for online booking.
He chooses the next available appointment, which is a Tuesday afternoon, almost a week from now. And then he’s prompted to write his letter of intent, and to make any requests and describe what he’s hoping to achieve or experience during this first encounter.
He doesn’t know what to say at first. Dear Huaisang, I’m a pathetic virgin who’s been lusting after you for longer than you’ve even had this stupid website.
Dear Huaisang, I wish we were doing this because you wanted me and not because you wanted to help a lonely soul.
Dear Huaisang, can you paint your nails purple for me? I like that.
“Fuck!” he shouts, raking all ten fingers through his hair. Why was this so hard for him!?
“Jiang Cheng!” Wuxian shouts, banging into his room like a charging rhinoceros.
“Fuck!” Jiang Cheng shouts again, this time in panic. He quickly closes his browser screen as Wuxian whips around to hug him from behind, then tosses himself onto Jiang Cheng’s bed and hugs his pillow.
“I did it! I asked Lan Wangji out!”
Jesus Christ.
“Good job,” Jiang Cheng sighs, turning around again so that he doesn’t have to see him. He can’t stand to see that huge, triumphant smile.
“And he said yes!” Wuxian crows. “I took a risk and I went for it and he said yes ! We’re going to the lake tomorrow night ! Oh my god, I thought I was gonna die though. He looks so intense all the time, right? And even after I gave him the basket, he still had that intense look - and I was scared he didn’t like it, right? Terrified, actually. But I just blurted it out anyway because what choice did I have? He already had the bunny stuff. And he didn’t smile exactly, but…Jiang Cheng! Jiang Cheng, I think he might really….he might actually…. like me.”
“Does that mean you finally realize that you like him?” Jiang Cheng grumbles.
Fuck. FUCK. He can’t even write a stupid pre-appointment note to Huaisang about a business transaction, but Wuxian is going on an actual date with his person.
“Well,” Wuxian is saying, sitting up on his forearms, belly-side down. “I said, ‘Lan Zhan, my brother thinks I like you. And, well, I’ve never liked another guy before, so I’m not sure. But I feel happy whenever I see you, and my stomach does this swoopy thing, and I think he might be right.’ You know, I was just honest!”
Jiang Cheng looks at his minimized browser screen.
Just honest? Well… that wasn’t a novel idea, but it was a scary one.
Trust Wuxian to come up with the right answer but also the answer that Jiang Cheng hates the most.
He sighs, half listening as his brother goes on and on about what he should wear, and what Wangji would like to eat, and should he buy him flowers and are flowers too girly because Wangji is not girly, even if he’s delicate. There’s a big difference between the two, blah blah blah blah…
When he’s able to get a word in here and there, Jiang Cheng does what he does best and lives out his own fantasies by handing the ideas all over to Wuxian.
Pick somewhere nice, but not stifling in formalism, and dress to match. You care about the date, you’re not marrying him. Yet, anyway.
Make sure it has a variety of foods because surely then he’ll find something that he likes, and make sure they cater to food allergies in case he has one you don’t know about.
Bring flowers. It’s a nice gesture and not too girly if you don’t make it cliche’. Something that reminds you of him. Something you think he’d like. And then tell him why it reminds you of him.
Robust yellow roses with delicate, frosting pink cosmos. That’s what Jiang Cheng would bring for Huaisang. Because it’s bright and happy, delicate but sturdy, beautiful and interesting, sweet but bold.
And for food? He’d take Huaisang to Yuan Yuan….classy, middle expensiveness, and classic Chinese food. Very low chance of either disappointing him, or of ordering something he can’t tolerate. Also, his mother says he looks “less bad than usual” when he wears a suit, and suits are mandatory at Yuan Yuan.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t include his last date idea. THAT one is special. Just for Huaisang. Huaisang likes jewelry. That much is clear. And Jiang Chen happens to have enough money to buy him some for their first date. He’d make it a bracelet. Something sparkly, with small yellow diamonds - to symbolize the canaries that Huaisang adores.
“Jiang Cheeeeenng?” Wuxian is saying, waving his hand in front of his face. “I asked if you’ve asked anyone out yet.”
Jiang Cheng spins his computer chair around to face away, toward the window. “I’m still looking for someone who doesn’t annoy me on sight.”
“Jiang Cheng!” Laughs Wuxian. “Everyone annoys you! If that’s your criteria, you’re going to die alone!”
Jiang Cheng winces, and Wuxian is silent for a long moment. He steps in front of Jiang Cheng and pats his own mouth several times in his version of an apology.
“Listen,” he starts again. ‘Of course you’ll find someone. You just need to spread your horizons. Get out of your comfort zone. You know?”
I already like someone, he thinks. I like him so much I can’t breathe sometimes, and the most I can do is pay to be with him.
Part of Jiang Cheng wants to tell Wuxian. He wants to let it out. But as usual, the words are stuck there, just beyond his throat.
“What about Wangji’s brother?”
“No .”
”Why not?” Wuxian demands. “The Lan family is very respectable! And he shares Wangji’s genes! He’s very handsome! Not as handsome as Wangji but nobody can be as handsome as Wangji - you shouldn’t set your sights that high - and if you tried to, I’d strangle you in your sleep - ”
“Wei Wuxian, stop!” Jiang Cheng shouts, leaping out of his chair and pacing. He can’t handle all this tension inside him all of a sudden. “I don’t want to date him or his brother or any other Lan!”
Wuxian stares in stunned silence for an astonishing five seconds.
“Okay. Okay, you don’t want to date a Lan. Maybe we’re approaching this the wrong way completely. What is your type? In your mind, what do you see?”
Hair tinsel, lip gloss, and nail polish.
“That’s…are you sure you’re not straight?” Wuxian asks, and that’s when Jiang Cheng realizes he must have spoken the words out loud. “I mean, if you are straight, you’re totally within your rights to be…it’s not your fault. Lots of people turn out straight. It’s not fashionable these days but it’s not bad . Feel free to have heternormative sex and a heteronormative wedding and even heteronormative little babies if you want - ”
”Wuxain, I’m not straight! We went over this!”
Another uncertain stare, and then, “You like trans women? Cross dressers!”
“Not really,” Jiang Cheng mutters. “Just… kind of. Gender fluid looks. A little bit. And… delicate. But still obviously male. Just. Cute and…kind of…”
“You like twinks who bottom?” Wuxian blurts. “But identify as male, but like to dress up pretty. Boy chic! Hey… is that what your Costco person is like? IT’S A GUY!? Why don’t you ask him out? I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before! Is he not actually someone you’d want to date, is that why?”
Jiang Cheng’s heart immediately leaps into a gallop.
“I mean, if you want to have casual sex, it’s not a bad thing. Sex positivity! You really need to read Eve Sedgwick, you know. There’s a wealth of people out there who - ”
“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng screams. “Please, just….please. I. He’s.”
Suddenly Jiang Cheng can’t help but sigh, and it’s so heavily that he feels like all the chi just leaves him. All at once. And he can’t keep denying what is so obviously the truth anymore.
“Yes. It’s the Costco person. Please don’t make me discuss more than that right now, brother.”
Wuxian touches his arm. “Okay.”
Another stretch of silence befalls them.
“You know you can come to me about anything, right?” Wuxian asks, tugging Jiang Cheng’s sleeve a bit. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Jiang Cheng actually does know that. It’s just that if he talks to Wuxian about it…it makes it real.
If he talks to Wuxian about it….if he says the words….he’ll make it come alive, and in front of his own eyes, loud and unavoidable. It’ll go from a hidden, unknowable fantasy - just a crush - to something he’ll have to face .
“I know,” Jiang Cheng says, pushing a pencil around on his desk. “…I know.”
~*~*~*~
“Oh. My. God!” Mian Mian says, the second she meets up with Huaisang on the nature trails in the park. “Have I got a customer for you.”
“Hmm?” Huaisang replies without much interest, and snaps another picture of the Spring foliage. It’s the perfect color palette inspiration for his paintings. He’s planning on hanging a few around the penthouse apartment he’s now renting out for his therapy business. Not enough color in there. It makes it feel too clinical.
“He’s stupidly your type!” Mian Mian pauses to giggle and starts swiping through her phone. “He’s passed all his tests and he just submitted his desired outcomes and special requests form! Wanna read it? Wait… first, look at his picture!”
Huaisang has to finish this last…there! The last daisy picture is complete. The painting will turn out totally perfect. It’s gonna go so perfectly in his parlor. That red couch….
Suddenly, Mian Mian shoves a picture in his face, so closely he can barely see it. After he sputters and takes a few steps back, he sees a man.
A man.
His heart actually badums twice, his mouth slightly open. This is the Dark Wolf that helped him carry his supplies to his car last week. Huaisang thinks of him that way because he’s always alone, always silent, skittish, but beautiful to look at with powerful muscles.
Huaisang had been hired in the bakery because of his artistic skills, but he was always happy when they needed back up on the registers and Dark Wolf came in so that Huaisang could offer to scan his heavy items and then watch his biceps bulge as he moved them around to give him access to the barcodes.
He had never in a million years expected him to show up in the pile of applicants. Surely this guy recognizes him from the store? Huaisang isn’t exactly common looking.
Actually, for a while, Huaisang was worried that Dark Wolf was a far-right homophobe who couldn’t stand the sight of him. That silent glare. The way he’d sometimes linger.
But after a while, he realized that the Dark Wolf was cautious, not vicious. He never caused trouble, was always polite, and definitely didn’t stalk him. He’s had a couple of those before, and Dark Wolf’s curious glances at him the one day a week he comes into the store is a far cry from that.
Oh, Huaisang is going to enjoy this.
“He’s cute, right?” Mian Mian asks. “Just your type. And he passed all his screenings with flying colors. …I shouldn’t tell you this as your CEO. But as your friend: there’s also something perfect about him. He’s loaded. I mean loaded . His dad is the most famous jeweler in the country. And his credit limit is…”
Mian Mian fans herself like she’s getting hot under the collar.
“Lets just say, if you make a premium member out of him, he’ll make us both very happy.”
“Oh god, tell me his special requirements are comfort sex. Please tell me it’s comfort sex,” Huaisang gushes.
“Well, let’s see!” She flips through her phone some more, then steps closer to him. They bring their heads together to read.
First time. Just want some physical relief. I have nothing emotional to heal, so no need for talking sessions. I’d like it if you could wear purple. Nail polish is good too.
“Oh, this guy’s got some deep emotional inhibitions.”
“Yeah,” Huaisang swoons, practically growing fangs.
“First time?” Mian Mian tilts her head at it. “He must mean first time with a guy.”
Huaisang shakes his head dismissively. “We can clarify at the session. This is so vague though. I’m going to have to get him to soften up a bit first. I know men, and stitches this tight are gonna require a LOT of TLC once they’re opened. Oh my god, it was worth it just for this. What if he cums before I even touch his dick?”
Mian Mian laughs. “Do you want him to?”
“Ugh, that would be so flattering, wouldn’t it?” He packs his camera away in its case. “Let’s go shopping for a purple outfit!”
Huaisang finds the perfect purple half skirt and the perfect purple fishnet top. But he doesn’t want to come off too slutty…just the right amount of slutty…so he pairs it with a deep plum crop top that shows his belly button ring.
Actually….he should change out his belly button ring for an amethyst. Dark Wolf would love that.
Maybe he’d even play with it a little. Maybe watch the way it glitters when Huaisang rides him.
Because he will ride him. Dark Wolf needs some deep, deep care and some slow, loving touch….he’s got a lot to unpack and Huaisang knows his body can do it.
~*~*~*~
Of all the days his fucking parents want him to sit at the table and have brunch, it’s today.
Jiang Cheng has exactly two more hours to get ready before he needs to leave for his session with Huaisang… holy fuck… and he needs everyone to leave so he can take a shower and shave and figure out what to wear and blowdry his hair and figure out what cologne to wear and how much of it and where he should put it.
He’s sweating bullets and can’t focus on anything they’re saying to him anyway. Wuxian kicks him under the table to bring his attention back around so many times that he finally just punches Wuxian in the arm and gets told off by their dad.
“Sorry, sir,” he mutters, withdrawing into his usual tight ball of shame and self-flagellation.
He’s sure Huaisang the sex god will find that extremely attractive.
Maybe he should cancel? Does that look weak? Is that disrespectful of Huaisang’s time? Would it make him mad? Would he strike Jiang Cheng from his list of customers from here to forevermore?
”What’s going on in that head of yours, son?” Their dad asks. “You’ve been different all day. Something happen at school?”
His face flames up. “No. I’m fine. May I be excused now? I have…an interview. For a … class report.”
Wuxian checks his watch. “I’ll be late for class if I don’t leave now.”
Dad sighs fondly.
“My boys grow up so fast, don’t they?” He asks himself. “Well…I guess I shouldn’t keep you from your studies. …we need more family meals together. This is nice. Hmm?”
Wuxian smiles and nods but hurriedly grabs all his stuff. Jiang Cheng catches a glance of a heart-shaped card sticking out of his backpack before Wuxian shoves it down.
Huh. That seems like quite a leap, but Jiang Cheng is only able to briefly consider that, and his mind is diverted straight back to the fact that once he leaves this house, he won’t come back a virgin.
Hopefully.
He’s honestly terrified he’s going to back out. But then he thinks about Huaisang’s eyes close up, staring into him, trying to see him. He inhales and trudges up the stairs to fix himself up.
It’s just sex. It’s just sex. It’s just sex.
He repeats this to himself as he takes his shower, shaves, and tries to make himself look presentable.
Why doesn’t his hair ever do what he wants it to? It’s not smooth and sleek like Huaisang’s and it’s not thick and wild like Wuxian’s. It’s just nothing. Like everything else about him. Plain and unremarkable. Neither first nor last. Just blah. Vanilla with a capital V.
He stands naked in his closet for far too long. He doesn’t even know what underwear to pick. Boxers, so there’s room for expansion? Briefs, so that there isn’t the risk of it just popping out when it shouldn’t? He settles on boxer briefs after a lot of debate. First purple, but then decides against that because if Huaisang is going to be wearing purple that’s going to be weird, right? They aren’t a couple. So then orange because he once heard a girl saying orange was the manliest color, but it makes his skin look green and ashen, so he switches to a deep red, and actually… that’s not too bad, but it feels flashy.
White it is.
He does the same with the rest of his outfit and ends up in comfortable black slacks and a light black and turquoise colorblock long sleeve open over a plain white Calvin Klein t-shirt. He skips the cologne, worried he’ll pick a scent Huaisang hates. He smells like the rich mineral bar soap he’d used anyway, and that should suffice.
Nobody objects to the smell of soap, right? It’s soap. Clean. And sex workers should appreciate cleanliness more than anybody else, right? Right.
Breathe. It’s just sex. It’s just sex. Breathe, you idiot, you’re going to blow it. And not in the good way.
He calls an Uber to bring him to the address. If he shows up in his own car, there’s a chance that Wuxian - or god forbid, his parents - spot that he’s there (he has a very distinctive car) and if they ever put it together that he was visiting The Golden Canary Cage….his life would be over.
~*~*~*~
It’s a little funny to Huaisang how the doorbell rings the very second the clock strikes 1:30. If that isn’t a telltale sign that Dark Wolf is an overthinker…
He opens the door with a smile that widens when he sees how stiff with anxiety this man looks. And a little too pale.
“Jiang Cheng?” He asks, then opens the door all the way to reveal his whole outfit. He sees Jiang Cheng try very hard to keep his eyes on Huaisang’s face. “It’s okay, sweetie, you can look.”
“I-” Jiang Cheng says, his voice husky-deep and so fucking sexy.
“You can come in, too.” Huaisang prompts, taking a slight step back in invitation.
“I think… I think I… I… m-maybe--”
Oh, no, he’s going to bolt if Huaisang doesn’t do something. The poor dear is even more neurotic than he’d imagined. This really must be his first first time. Not just his first time with a man.
“Jiang Cheng,” Huaisang says, as gently as possible without being condescending. “We can ease into it. We can do as much or as little as you’d like.” He reaches out, takes one of Jiang Cheng’s hands in both of his and lightly rubs circles into the back of it with his thumbs. “Let’s start with just a shoulder rub. You can keep your pants on.”
He starts walking backwards, slowly leading Jiang Cheng into the room by his hand. When he’s fully inside, Huaisang reaches between Jiang Cheng’s waist and his arm to push the door closed.
“There, see?” He murmurs. “It’s just us. Just me. I promise I’m not scary at all. Let me get you some water.”
He guides Jiang Cheng to the bed, but at the last minute, he chooses the couch instead. It makes for a lot less pressure. And the last thing Dark Wolf needs is pressure. He’s in his twenties and probably already needs blood pressure pills.
Huaisang gets him a glass of water with some ice inside, holding it out to Jiang Cheng.
He takes it with a shaking hand.
“There you go, darling,” Huaisang says, stepping behind him. “Let’s see….” He surveys the array of massage oils on his desk. “Something tells me you’re a floral scent kind of guy. Jasmine? No….lotus. Lotus, isn’t it?”
“How did you know?” Jiang Cheng asks.
Ha! Progress already.
Huaisang smiles as he selects the lotus bottle. “I’ve always had a knack for reading people.”
He sees Jiang Cheng tense up all over again, his knuckles going white on his water glass.
Huaisang laughs softly and lays a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I can’t read your mind. It doesn’t work that way. Now… whenever you’re ready, I’ll have you take off your shirt.” He gives a squeeze. “In your expectations sheet, you said you need some physical relief, and relaxing all this tension is going to be a big part of that.”
“How did you get so good at this?” Jiang Cheng asks.
Huaisang’s whole body rejoices when he starts to ease off his shirt. He’s so handsome and he so clearly has no idea. It’s deathly attractive.
“Oh, that’s just the gift I was given,” Huaisang murmurs, softly into his ear. “I don’t have many but the ones I do have will blow your mind. And it’s no hardship…I love what I do. Especially when a dark wolf like you shows up on my doorstep.”
He warms the oil between his palms. He loves this part. Watching the guy anticipate his touch. Watching himself be needed.
“Now, just relax, okay? You can close your eyes if you’d like.”
Huaisang already has alpha wave notes playing lightly, but as he starts kneading into Jiang Cheng’s tightly-wound muscles, he hums softly. From this angle, he can just see Jiang Cheng’s eyelashes, and when they close, he allows himself a thorough look of his arms and shoulders and back.
Good god, this man is built like a Greek statue. He must take his cultivation training very seriously. He has a few scars here and there, and those are a turn-on too. As Huaisang works his way down, he subtly tests the lines of that V-shaped torso, and can’t help but wonder (and be thankful) about his sexual inexperience.
Who the hell looks like this and manages to hold onto their virginity this long?
….he must be wound tight.
Huaisang rubs down the hard muscles and takes his time. This is as much for himself as it is for Jiang Cheng. Has non-sex ever felt this good? He doesn’t think so. God, he could touch this guy all day. He even smells perfect. Thank god he’s got some kind of anxiety disorder, or else he’d probably be persuaded into being a sex worker himself, and Huaisang would have some stiff competition.
…and speaking of stiff….
He glances down over Jiang Cheng’s shoulder appreciatively. He’s already fully hard for him. Most men would be more than ready for him to just start sucking it already, but the last thing Huaisang wants is to make an erection that size flag by being too pushy with something this flighty.
Instead, he leans close into Jiang Cheng’s ear. “Feels good, hmm? Here,” he moves a pillow at the head of the couch. “Lay face down with this. I can work your massage better and you can relax into it more.”
Jiang Cheng hesitates for a moment, staring down at the pillow. Huaisang simply waits, saying nothing, and finally Jiang cheng stretches out to his full length, sliding his arms beneath the pillow and resting his cheek on it.
Huaisang throws a leg over his hips and straddles him, then starts warming more lotus flower oil between his hands.
This guy is a stallion . Huaisang sincerely intends to make him come hard enough that there’s no way he won’t sign up for a premium membership. He might even make a new membership tier just for him.
Dark Wolf Tier. It will have a membership count of one, Huaisang will charge nothing, and he will give sex to this guy as often as he wants forever. For free. Because goddamn.
He squeezes and rubs Jiang Cheng’s sides, feeling him up shamelessly from the wide breadth of his chest down to the narrow V of his hip bones. The slacks Jiang Cheng is wearing are riding low, sitting just over the curve of his ass, and Huaisang really admires that kind of aesthetic perfection. It’s art, really.
When he feels Jiang Cheng’s breath growing heavier, he leans forward, pressing himself fully against Jiang’s Cheng’s back to whisper against his ear. “Are you ready for me to do the other side now?” His fingers sift through the hair at the nape of Jiang Cheng’s neck, and Huaisang feels a shudder rush through him.
“I….I….”
“A little more of the rub down then,” Huaisang murmurs. “That’s fine…it’s no hard ship to me. Not at all.”
He shifts forward a bit, just so that Jiang Cheng can feel exactly what he means.
Then, he starts mouthing at his nape in lazy, wet kisses.
Jiang Cheng lets out the sexiest noise Huaisang has ever heard. Something like a gasp and a growl and a whimper.
“Relax,” He whispers, whipping his hair to one side, letting it curtain down around them as his lips fan over the rim of Jiang Cheng’s ear. His hands move around to stroke down his throat as he works more kisses into his neck.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” Huaisang murmurs. He shifts slowly, with deliberate care. He knows he’s about half Jiang Cheng’s size - if he weren’t, this position would probably scare the hell out of him instead of do any relaxing - and he wants Jiang Cheng to feel what he’s being offered. “I can do whatever you’d like. You can have my hand….” kiss. “Or my mouth…” kiss. “Or my ass….” Kiss. “Or even just my words,” he finishes in a whisper. “If that’s what you need.”
“I…I…” Jiang Cheng murmurs into the pillow, his voice already all roughed up. “I want…”
“You can tell me,” Huaisang urges, fingertips digging gently into his hair, scratching his scalp. “You’re safe with me.”
“Nmmgh.” Jiang Cheng takes a few more rasping breaths. “I want to see you. I… I want to see you on top of me. I… I’m not… just… I just want to--”
“Our clothes will stay on for now,” Huaisang assures, and Jiang Cheng nods in vigorous relief.
Huaisang nearly melts over him, the dear….he’s such a hard block of man but he’s so sweet inside. Like an M&M. Would Jiang Cheng mind if he called him that? Like a pet name. His big, sweet M&M.
Melt in my mouth, not in my hand?
Huaisang files that away for when they know each other better. When Jiang Cheng can fuck him into the mattress and not have a panic attack about it first.
He maneuvers them around so that Jiang Cheng can lie on his back. He finds out at once that his ass fits perfectly into the cradle of Jiang Cheng’s lap.
“This is…” he starts, but trails off when he focuses on Jiang Cheng’s face and realizes suddenly that this man probably will cum before Huaisang gets anywhere near his cock. He smiles indulgently. “This is perfect. You are perfect. Did you know that?”
He nestles himself more firmly into Jiang Cheng’s lap, spreading his thighs a little more, letting him look his fill. As Jiang Cheng’s eyes travel over him, Huaisang feels that already impressive cock grow even bigger against his ass.
“You can touch me,” Huaisang says, taking Jiang Cheng’s big, clean and well-kept hands and placing them on his hips.
Jiang Cheng is a dominant man, no matter how shy or anxious he may be. As soon as his palms connect with Huaisang’s hips, a low, feral growl escapes him, and he squeezes so tightly that Huaisang gasps at his strength.
“Careful there, soldier,” he says, with a naughty little chuckle. “I’m delicate.”
Jiang Cheng immediately releases his grip.
“That’s better,” says Huaisang. “Go on, then….do you want my top off? You can touch wherever you’d like.”
Huaisang is both surprised and not surprised when Jiang Cheng touches the amethyst belly ring over the purple fishnet. It’s almost reverent the way he does it, light little strokes that shouldn’t feel that good. Each one sends the lightest tug arrowing down to his erection.
“Do you like that?” He asks, a little breathless. “Let me get this out of the way for you.”
He leans back, the shift of his ass against Jiang Cheng’s iron deliciously teasing, and pulls off both the crop top and the fishnet shirt at once. They land in a small pile on the floor.
Jiang Cheng’s pupils are so large now they’ve practically swallowed up all the brown topaz of his irises. Huaisang can’t help himself; he leans forward again, one hand on Jiang Cheng’s muscled pecs for support, and the other daring to cup his sharp jaw.
“You are so unbelievably sexy,” Huaisang whispers, this thumb trailing over Jiang Cheng’s lower lip. “How do you feel about kissing?”
Huaisang feels Jiang Cheng’s heart answer under his palm with a hard thwap, thwap.
Huaisang glances down at it, moves his hand to cover Jiang Cheng’s heart more fully, and then leans down to press their lips together.
It’s clear to him that Jiang Cheng hasn’t ever done this either, and his heart twists with something fiercely tender. He slowly eases him into it, until Jiang Cheng answers back cautiously to the innocent pecks. Then he tugs Jiang Cheng’s lower lip between his teeth and feels a jolt run through his beautiful Dark Wolf.
Huaisang sighs in pleasure and slips his tongue between now-willing lips, inviting Jiang Cheng’s tongue to play.
Jiang Cheng lets out a choked sound deep in his throat, his big hands sliding from Huaisang’s hips to his ass. It feels so fucking good the way he gently kneads into his muscles there…
Huaisang brushes his tongue against Jiang Cheng’s more fully, and suddenly Jiang Cheng is grunting softly into his mouth, his hands gripping like he’s trying to hang on. Huaisang can tell by the way his body seizes up beneath his thighs exactly what happened.
He pulls back from the kiss, glancing slowly down Jiang Cheng’s body, and then back up to his eyes.
“I… I’m sorry.. Fuck… I-”
“Don’t be,” Huaisang whispers. “I was hoping for this. That was so hot.”
He leans forward, kissing him again, deep and slow - so that Jiang Cheng will know that he means it.
When he pulls back, Jiang Cheng’s eyes flutter open dazedly. He has such lovely long eyelashes. How can such pretty eyes belong on so masculine a face, Huaisang wonders.
“…really?” His Dark Wolf whispers.
“Oh yes,” Huaisang murmurs. He kneads into those gorgeous sculpted pecs appreciatively. “And I’m sure a stallion like you will be rearing to go again later. Tell me…how many times did you imagine having me? Hmm? Twice? Three times? I want to know.”
That look of apprehension bleeding into panic appears on his face again.
Slow down, Huaisang, he reminds himself. It would seem this absolute treat of a man is worried about his performance in either direction: premature ejaculation, and being able to perform at all.
In his mind, he takes several steps back. Maybe getting a good fucking today is too much too soon. Jiang Cheng is all kinds of tense and uncertainty again, now that the haze of one orgasm is slowly leaving him.
“Stay here,” Huaisang says, caressing Jiang Cheng’s face. “Catch your breath. We have time.”
With that, he makes to slide off of Jiang Cheng’s lap, but giggles when Jiang Cheng’s arms snap around him like a bear trap.
“You don’t want me to leave?” He murmurs against Jiang Cheng’s mouth. “That is so cute. I’m not going far. I promise I’ll be right back, okay?”
He pulls back and waits for Jiang Cheng’s permission. When his arms loosen, he pats Jiang Cheng’s cheek again and slides off. He gets a warm, damp cloth and then lingers by the side of the couch.
“Can we get you out of those pants and clean you up?”
Jiang Cheng hesitates, fairly vibrating with nerves, like a colt afraid to leave the stable.
But Huaisang knows that when he finally does, he’ll run circles around the others.
After long moments, he nods.
He’s so tense still, even after one orgasm. Huaisang thinks this one will need every skill he’s gained so far in this journey. He can’t wait, he really can’t.
With commanding gentleness, he unbuckles Jiang Cheng’s belt (Armani, Fall collection of 2023, definitely comes from money) and pulls it from its loops. He casts an approving smile down at his Dark Wolf, and then unbuttons and unzips his slacks.
Oh, by the angels above, he’s worried Huaisang will be disappointed in his cock? What the fuck…. Is this guy real? How? Why? He can see it in Jiang Cheng’s eyes, the way he’s searching Huaisang’s face for any hint of disapproval, how his hands linger just above Huaisang’s, like he’s ready to stop him any minute.
Slower, Huaisang’s mind whispers. Make this so memorable that he’ll never be able to fuck anyone ever again without thinking of you.
“Raise your hips,” he says, and peels down just the slacks first, revealing his cum-stained boxer briefs.
Huaisang straddles Jiang Cheng’s powerful thighs this time, so that his half skirt falls over Jiang Cheng’s pelvis. He tugs it up a bit, until he has the perfect view of Jiang Cheng’s covered bulge nestled between his thighs and his own erection. He watches Jiang Cheng’s face as he starts to cup and rub him, warming him up to the intimacy of touch.
Carefully, he eases the boxer briefs down.
Yeah, Jiang Cheng is a stallion in every way. Huaisang hit the jackpot with this one. He gets paid to do this? How did he ever get so lucky?
Huaisang made sure the cloth was hot, but not too hot, and he loves giving aftercare, so he was careful to select the softest, most gentle cloth too. He shows all the reverence and yes, impressed-ness, he feels about how Jiang Cheng is built as he cleans him up. It’s certainly no hardship to hold him this way and that, to stroke the rivers of white off of him, to pat him carefully dry when it’s all done.
As anticipated, Jiang Cheng is fully hard again. Huaisang slowly swirls one nail-painted fingertip around the orbit of Jiang Cheng’s thick cockhead.
“I really want to suck you off,” He says, with a sincerity he feels in his bone marrow. “May I? Do I have your permission, soldier?”
He’s got a condom in his skirt pocket he’s just itching to tear open with his teeth and then roll onto that cock with his lips.
Would Jiang Cheng let him? Would it be too much, too soon?
Jiang Cheng breathes out suddenly in a huge, shuddering exhale. He nods as if the movement is completely outside his control - hurried and vigorous.
Huaisang realizes he’s even got a few locks of his hair wound up tightly in one of his fists.
Is his Dark Wolf so eager already?
Huaisang takes the condom out of his skirt pocket so fast that he nearly drops it. Rookie mistake. He’s just so turned-on, is all. He needs to come, so he’s not thinking straight. But even protection can be sexy, and Jiang Cheng loves to look at him. So he forces himself to slow down again, to stare in those fiery wolf’s eyes as the condom package tears against his teeth with a satisfying rustle. He flings that aside, pops the tip of the condom just between his lips and then eagerly slips downward.
He hears Jiang Cheng let out a desperate grunt as he wraps a hand around the base of his cock to hold it steady. He touches the condom to the crown of it, the rolled edges creating the smallest barrier between his lips and Jiang Cheng’s skin. His eyes flick up again, locking his gaze with that hungry stare and pushing forward, slowly rolling and stretching the condom down his length as he takes it between his lips and into his mouth.
From there, he knows exactly what to do. No deepthroating, no cherry stem tricks. Just a straight blowjob. This Dark Wolf is skittish, and so he should go slowly. His Dark Wolf is insecure, so he needs to show him exactly how big he is, and how wide Huaisang must stretch his jaw to get him inside. His Dark Wolf is inexperienced, and he might come quickly again, so Huaisang needs to be prepared for the unexpected.
He crouches between Jiang Cheng’s spread thighs, where it will be easy to check his expressions from time to time, and then begins with a long, slow lick up the underside. He gets a sharp inhale and deep shudder in response.
“Too much?”
Jiang Cheng shakes his head like he’s about to go mad. “Please don’t stop. Please.”
Huaisang is all too happy to obey. He doesn’t hold back the needy whimper that escapes him as he parts his lips just slightly to cradle Jiang Cheng’s frenulum between them and gently pluck at it. God damn, he loves sucking cock, and it’s always better when that cock is big and sensitive and crazy responsive to everything he does.
Above him, Jiang Cheng is letting out tight gasps, and Huaisang wishes he would relax a little bit and just breathe, but he’s too hungry for cock to try to coach him on that right now. He moves up, encapsulating the head between his lips. He flattens his tongue and curves it up around the underside as he starts a slow, sensual rhythm, sucking up and down the length and bobbing his head.
As he expected, Jiang Cheng doesn’t last long. He starts jerking and shuddering like he’s trying to hold back. And Huaisang doesn’t let up even for a moment. He wants that…ah, there it is….Jiang Cheng’s hips buck up once, twice, three times…
The condom fills, and Huaisang feels like he’s two seconds from jumping into Jiang Cheng’s lap and riding him from here to kingdom come.
He pulls back slowly, laving over the head with the flat of his tongue, the way he’d do if he could lick up all that delicious cum and swallow it down.
Maybe one day he could. Maybe one day, he can tame his Dark Wolf, and they could be more than healer and customer. What if they ended up having sex just because ? What if Huaisang could do everything he wanted, without precaution?
Oh… that’s a wild thought. And might possibly be a little unnerving when he studies that closer later on, but now… right now… he needs to get railed by--
His mind breaks off when he looks up. Jiang Cheng has an arm over his face, hiding his eyes in the bend of his elbow. He looks totally and utterly overwhelmed.
Huaisang takes a mindful breath, in and out, to relax a bit of his own tensed up arousal. With care, he takes the condom off of Jiang Cheng and ties it off expertly, then looks back at him again.
“Are you okay?”
Jiang Cheng nods, but he’s…
“It’s okay if you’re overwhelmed,” Huaisang soothes, stroking his thigh. When Jiang Cheng doesn’t protest that, Huaisang slides himself between the back of the couch and Jiang Cheng’s side and quietly pats his chest.
They lie like that together for….Huaisang doesn’t know how long. Long enough for Jiang Cheng’s breathing to return to normal and his heartbeat to slow to a normal thump thump instead of a constant pattering brrrrrrrrrrr.
After that happens, Jiang Cheng carefully, hesitantly, lays one hand over Huaisang’s, where it’s resting on his chest.
“I’m okay,” he says. “You’re very good. At this.”
“I’m very happy that you think so,” Huaisang responds gently. When he sits up, Jiang Cheng watches him with another wave of excitement underpinned with nerves. Huaisang smiles at him and strokes his cheek.
“I think we should conclude for today. That was intense even for me.”
Jiang Cheng looks like he wants to protest, but before he can, Huaisang goes on.
“Stay here as long as you need. I don’t have any other customers today.”
“But what about you?” Jiang Cheng asks, and he does sound like he’s protesting. He even starts sitting up, leaning forward like he’s coiled to act as soon as Huaisang says the word.
He almost laughs. This is starting to feel a little bit like a cosmic joke aimed directly at him. No one had ever concerned himself with Huaisang’s satisfaction.
Scratch that: they had only cared to prove their own masculinity and to get something in return.
But Jiang Cheng… he’s offering after he’s had his fill. And either Huaisang’s ability to read people is slipping, or he’s sincere about simply wanting Huaisang to be satisfied with their encounter as well.
Oh, what Huaisang would give to just climb into his lap and fuck this boy like he deserves to be fucked. He’s already pushed Jiang Cheng to the limit, though. If he breaks him down too much, too soon, he’ll get scared off. The experience can never, ever be bad overwhelming. Only good overwhelming.
But he can’t tell Jiang Cheng that. He’s pretty certain he’d be triggered if Huaisang said anything that Jiang Cheng could misconstrue as being called weak.
Huaisang smiles at Jiang Cheng as he rises from the couch and moves closer.
“Handsome, well endowed, and generous,” He says, helping Jiang Cheng button up his pants. “My, but your blessings are many.”
Jiang Cheng turns a little red around the ears, and he looks like he’s floundering trying to figure out what to say.
“I’m okay. But… if you desire to pleasure me, I’m happy to be more hands off next time.” He elevates himself on tiptoe and speaks quietly against his ear. “Let you do whatever you want to me. …you will come back, won't you?”
“God, yes,” Jiang Cheng growls. Growls. Huaisang could swoon.
He even grabs onto Huaisang’s halfskirt, clenching his fingers into the pleats at his hips.
Huaisang thinks he will be getting a lot of attention the next time Jiang Cheng visits him.
He can’t wait.
Once Jiang Cheng is redressed, Huaisang walks him to the door. On the threshold, he stands on tiptoe again to wrap his arms around Jiang Cheng’s neck and hug him, tight and warm and lingering. The shocked way he freezes before cautiously returning it tells Huaisang what he’d expected all along. This man doesn’t just need sex and reassurance. He needs love. Tenderness. Someone to belong to.
When he pulls back and bids him goodnight, he inwardly congratulates himself for being the one to put that dazed, pleasant look on his lone wolf’s face.
~*~*~*~
Jiang Cheng is so happy, he can barely contain himself. He has to stop himself from jumping and whooping and running to his car like he just got a winning lottery ticket or something. Not even the lottery - the golden ticket. The stairway to heaven. That’s what he feels like he’s just walked.
The stairway to heaven.
God, he’s thankful he got up the guts to submit that application. Nie Huaisang is everything he hoped for and more. He totally needs and wants more. He’d put his beloved purple Stingray up as collateral if that was what it took to get his hands on that sweet, sweet ass again.
Next time, he’s going to fuck him. His mind is made up. He’s going to fuck him, and fuck him well , and make him squeal prettily as he rams his sweet spot. Jiang Cheng has read about prostates online. He knows a bottom’s prostate is their g-spot. Some of them even come just from it being stimulated. He’d like to see that with Huaisang: him coming just from Jiang Cheng’s cock, hammering against his most pleasurable inner spot.
He should look at some more tips about it, watch some really good instructional porn. Yes, that would be the best use of his time. Huaisang seems more than willing to just let himself be used, and Jiang Cheng wants nothing more than to have his way with that little tartlette.
Not that Huaisang touching him wasn’t the definition of nirvana. Fuck, he’s never come so hard or fast in his life. And certainly never back to back like that.
He didn’t even know he could. Could he one day work himself up to having three? Four?
Could he pound Huaisang’s perfect ass all night long?
Once he’s in the car, he starts up the engine, revving it to match the obscene happiness he feels inside. He even sings along to the radio on his way home, at the top of his lungs.
When he turns down their street, he slows and turns down the radio to see better. There is an unfamiliar white Rolls Royce with the top down. As he idles closer, he sees Lan Wangji in the driver’s seat, and Wuxian beside him, arms flying animatedly as he speaks.
Jiang Cheng smirks, at first. He doesn’t want to interrupt, so he cuts the engine across the street and waits. He’s feeling unusually generous right now.
And really, isn’t it wonderful that his brother is getting some action too? Yes. Wuxian is annoying as shit, and sure he makes Jiang Cheng’s life a living hell sometimes, and definitely he wanted to kill him when he beat him in the fencing competition that time, but overall….
Overall, Wuxian is the best brother Jiang Cheng could ever ask for. He wants him to be happy.
He watches as Wangji steps out of the car (looking like he has a stick up his ass, but if that’s what Wuxian likes, whatever) and crosses to the passenger side, opening the door carefully. Wangji even holds out a hand for Wuxian’s, helping him out.
Something about the gesture is so….intimate. And not intimate the way that Jiang Cheng just was with Huaisang. Intimate in a quiet, innocent way…something irreparable.
Something that can’t be bought.
The happy bubble in Jiang Cheng’s chest starts to slowly sink as Wuxian and Wangji walk arm-in-arm to the door. Actually, it’s more like a slow promenade. Like neither of them can bear to reach the end so quickly.
We should conclude here for today…
That’s what Huaisang has said after laying in his arms for mere minutes. A polite way to shoo him out. Jiang Cheng could have laid like that forever. He’d never felt so happy. But now, seeing something so real unfolding in front of him, seeing how it’s supposed to be, how it’s not hard for just one person to leave the other, but hard for them both…
It was hard for Jiang Cheng. He didn’t want to go. Not ever. But Huaisang, he realizes now, had no problem seeing him out. And Jiang Cheng had still felt special, somehow.
Stupid, he thinks now, as Wangji stops walking halfway up the path, and Wuxian turns to look back at him, only to get drawn into Wangji’s arms and kissed like they’re in a silent french film.
Jiang Cheng’s happy bubble bursts completely. Huaisang may have kissed him longer than that, and far more sexually implicit, but it wasn’t…. like that.
No… it wasn’t like that.
Suddenly, he’s angry. So angry that his hands shake against his steering wheel. He sits there, against the curb, waiting for their unseemly display to end. It seems to take forever: Wuxian’s hand cupping Wangji’s cheek so slowly…Wangji taking ages to step closer and deepen the kiss.
Jiang Cheng turns his whole body away. He’d rather watch the neighborhood stray eat bits of leftover tuna on people’s porches than see them together.
Like that.
He glances at them again. They’re staring at each other, lips parted. Not even fucking kissing anymore and Jiang Cheng just can’t. He fires up his car and peels away from the curb, driving too fast as he hits the freeway and heads toward…
Who? Where?
Maybe he can fly away from what he doesn’t want to face, but he doesn’t have anywhere to go.
He ends up in the parking lot of a 99 cents store, drowning his sorrows in a bowl of ramen and a bar of chocolate. He’s so utterly, utterly pathetic.
Why do others get the things he wants so easily? Why is it so hard for him? Why can’t he be normal ? Why?
He shouldn’t torture himself…he knows he shouldn’t. But he can’t help it. Images of Huaisang standing with him the way Wangji and Wuxian were flood into his mind. Huaisang would look so beautiful in the moonlight. His height would make it easy for Jiang Cheng to see the glow the light cast down on him. Huaisang’s skin would look absolutely luminous.
And they would talk, too. Jiang Cheng would ask him about the paintings he’d seen on the walls in his penthouse, and why he liked to help people so much, and figure out what he loved besides sex. He’d let Huaisang talk at him for hours, about anything and everything, and he would never get sick of it, even if he was complaining, because it meant that Huaisang trusted him, that Jiang Cheng had become his person.
It would mean that Huaisang could listen to him, too. Maybe it wouldn’t always be sex (amazing as that was, holy fuck). Jiang Cheng could say things to him. About stuff. Without the fear of judgment, and maybe he’d feel a little less lonesome in the depths of himself.
It can be that way, can’t it? A romance doesn’t have to start the same way to end up somewhere just as real. Sex workers have relationships too. Some of them even stop once they fall in love.
Maybe Jiang Cheng would have to learn to adapt to the way he viewed sex, even if the jealousy killed him. Even if he would want to kill Huaisang’s customers. …he would probably kill one or two. He’s a good cultivator, no matter what his mother says. He could tear those assholes limb from limb. And Huaisang would have to understand that he’s built that way, that he’s possessive! But… If Huaisang is the kind of person who didn’t want to stop his sex work, then Jiang Cheng would suffer but if that’s what he would have to do to keep Huaisang for himself in the ways that really mattered….Jiang Cheng would do it.
….after killing one or two. Or three. The worst offenders.
Besides, he would give Huaisang a good dose of dick every day so that he’d be too fucked out to want for anyone else’s come anyway. He’s nothing if not tenacious, and he’s never wanted to prove himself more. Not even about his cultivation. Not even to his father.
Outside the window, a girl slaps her boyfriend across the face. Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes as he laughs softly. He’s even jealous of that. Huaisang doesn’t care enough about him to muster up that kind of anger toward him. He recognizes that he shouldn’t wish for that, and he doesn’t… he may have some hidden kinks rattling around in there, but violence is not one of them.
No, he’s just that desperate to have something real.
What should he do? Should he try to win Huaisang’s heart? Through sex?
He slides his hands down his face and then fumbles for his phone to do a preliminary search:
‘Sex to real relationship.’
‘How to win someone over with sex.’
‘How to tell if the person you’re sleeping with wants something more.’
The articles are full of top ten lists that seem like a bot wrote them, not a person.
Listen to how their body language speaks.
What the fuck does that mean? If Jiang Cheng was a body language expert, would he be reading this article?
Watch their eyes.
Okay, but watch for what??
Pay attention for signs of jealousy.
WHAT is a sign of jealousy, though? He wants to break his phone.
He jolts when it rings, then gets angry all over again when he sees that it’s Wuxian.
“What?” He answers.
“Where are you?” Wuxian sounds slightly frantic, and there’s a lot of noise in the background. “Madam Jiang is going to kill you if you’re late.”
Jiang Cheng racks his brain, but once again it comes up empty of anything that doesn’t have to do with Huaisang.
“Late for what? Look… if this is one of your-”
“Um, for the dinner?” Wuxian says, like he can’t believe how stupid Jiang Cheng is being right now. “Dad is hosting the business dinner with Cartier’s CEO tonight.”
Jiang Cheng feels his soul depart from his body. “That… that’s tonight?”
“In one hour. No. In 58 minutes.”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck ! I am so fucked!”
“Listen, just…” Wuxian pauses. It sounds like he covers the phone with his hand, because the garbled voice of their father buzzes over the line, and then suddenly Wuxian is speaking quietly into the phone. “Come in through the back. I’ll have clothes waiting for you in the guest suite.”
“Okay, fuck, I’m coming -” Jiang Cheng turns his key in the ignition as fast as he can and thank god he’s got a V8 and the engine leaps into a roar right away. “Thank you.”
“I got you, you idiot. Don’t worry. Just get here,” Wuxian says, and then Jiang Cheng hears him in the background gabbing cheerfully to their dad about how great his suit looks and has he lost a few pounds? Because he’s almost sure his pants are going to need suspenders soon, right, ahahhaha - and then the call clicks off.
Jiang Cheng has to go past Costco in order to reach the freeway. He glances at his clock and realizes Huaisang might be working right now, and so what would it hurt if he just…
It’s kind of a bad idea, because even on a good day, this parking lot is shit. But he coasts through without having to slam on his breaks too many times, and gets a sinking feeling in his stomach when he doesn’t see the little yellow car.
What does Huaisang do when he isn’t working? …Works some more, apparently, but he had told Jiang Cheng that he didn’t have any other customers today.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t know if that makes him feel worse or better. He doesn’t like the idea of Huaisang doing all those toe-curling things to someone else (even if he knows it happens all the time), but he also hates the idea of him being out on an actual date somewhere.
He slams on his breaks with a loud curse when a group of people step off the sidewalk and into the street in front of him. One of them gives him a hard look, like it’s his fault they don’t know the first thing about crossing a road safely, but he can’t even register that fully because there he is. Huaisang. Looking fucking adorable as he walks out of the hole-in-the-wall mexican restaurant nestled between Costco and a UPS store. His hair is pulled half up and he has on a white sweater that he’s accentuated with makeup that makes him look like a glittering snow angel even as winter is quickly melting into spring.
There’s a man walking with him. Big, tall guy. Dark hair. Kind of mean looking. And Jiang Cheng can’t even hide anyplace because there are too many people passing in front of his goddamn car!
His hands shake on the steering wheel as he watches them; Huaisang gets distracted asking a woman about her Louis Vuitton purse, and the man with him grumbles something and snaps Huaisang back to his side by the arm. Jiang Cheng’s blood curdles, and he makes to step out of the car to start screaming at the big ape for being so rough with someone obviously so delicate!
Traffic starts to move again, and Jiang Cheng only realizes that because there’s suddenly a loud horn blaring behind him.
“Alright, I’m going! Fuck!” Jiang Cheng shouts.
He starts forward, being careful to make sure Huaisang is well away from the intersection.
He spares himself a glance backward as he slowly pulls forward. Huaisang is still with the big ape guy.
Only now, he looks miserable.
“Fuck,” he shouts again, glancing at his clock. He’s really going to be late for the Cartier dinner if he doesn’t just go.
The car behind him honks again, and Jiang Cheng cuts his wheel toward the curb to park, then lays on his horn and flips them off as they go by. His heart is racing with anger and jealousy and worry and the fear of the minutes slowly ticking away.
He checks his rear-view mirror and sees his cute, pouty little snow angel being jerked along by the big ape, still moving along the sidewalk in his direction.
Jiang Cheng moves without thinking, his palms slick with sweat as he rolls down the driver's side window and waits without breathing at all.
At least, that’s what it feels like at first. But the closer they get, the louder his breath thunders in his own ears, until they just barely pass and Jiang Cheng leans his head out.
“Huaisang!”
Huaisang turns immediately, shining dark hair whipping over his shoulder. For a second, Jiang Cheng is horrified and humiliated at himself. Then Huaisang’s face splits into a smile that could hypnotize the moon.
“Jiang Cheng?” He slips his arm fluidly out of the grasp of the other man and lopes toward him like a bouncy little cat.
Jiang Cheng can’t smile back, even though that bubbling, helium feeling is filling his chest again. He keeps his eyes locked on the other man, who’s now looking at him with open bewilderment.
“Do you need a ride home?” He asks Huaisang, glaring at the man.
“Yep,” he says immediately, completely startling Jiang Cheng. He turns back toward the other man. “I’ll catch a ride with my friend! Now you can go straight home!”
He rushes around Jiang Cheng’s car, into the fucking street, and nearly makes Jiang Cheng lose his soul for the second time that night. But then he’s settling into the passenger seat safely, smiling as he clicks on his seatbelt and waves to the other man. “So. Where are we going?”
He smells like a warm sugar cookie and Jiang Cheng is suddenly hungry for dessert, but he’s a grown man and he can handle himself respectfully. He clears his throat and eases away from the curb and out of the fucking parking lot from hell, at last.
“Anywhere you need to go,” Jiang Cheng finds himself saying, distantly horrified at his own daring. But he’s too much of a wuss to hold back from saying, “I just need to be back for a…a thing…soon.”
God, he sounds so lame. He can’t stand himself.
His grip tightens on the wheel.
“Okay, you can drop me off anywhere,” Huaisang says easily. “I just really wanted to get away from my brother. A two hour dinner with him while he lectures me about my life is more than enough time for me.”
All of this breaks Jiang Cheng’s brain.
Anywhere?
Brother?
Lectures about life?
BROTHER?
He actually feels himself smile. Just the barest bit.
“Your brother fucks up your life too?” Jiang Cheng asks. Then, “I can’t just leave you anywhere. Tell me where you’ll be safe.”
Huaisang is looking at him now. Jiang Cheng can feel that penetrating gaze on him, and he can see the hint of a smile there.
“Aren’t I safe with you?” It comes out lilting, and then he’s patting Jiang Cheng’s thigh. His nails are still painted purple. “I live on the northwest side of the city… is that out of your way?”
Completely, but so what?
“Not at all. You can put your address into the navigator.”
Huaisang happily takes Jiang Cheng’s phone from its mount, typing in something merrily.
Jiang Cheng glances at the screen after he puts it back and finds that Huaisang has saved his address with the title “Nie Huaisang’s Purple Palace <3”
That heart makes Jiang Cheng’s actual heart kick up into a sprint.
He coughs, clears his throat. “Uh, your, um, brother looks kind of-”
“Like a complete asshole?” Huaisang supplies. “Nah. There’s some dark cultivation in our family line that’s stained his qi, but… it’s not his fault, and overall, he’s just worried about me.”
“He handled you pretty roughly,” Jiang Cheng points out, a harsh edge to it.
He feels Huaisang glance at him again. “I suppose so. I’m so used to it that I don’t think much of it anymore. What’s your brother like?”
“Don’t your parents care about him mistreating you?” Jiang Cheng demands. ”….my brother is a wise ass who has too much power for his own good, but he’s a good guy.”
“My parents? No. Never as much as you seem to,” Huaisang murmurs, so softly that Jiang Cheng almost doesn’t hear it. “My brother got it from my dad after my dad died. And my mom, she’s gone now too. But both my brother and my father blamed her for my being too soft for their liking.”
“….too soft,” Jiang Cheng says, through clenched teeth. “As in, too gay?”
“No?” Huaisang sounds a little surprised by the question. “They never seemed to care about that part. They only care that I’d rather wield a paintbrush than a saber, and I can accurately name the song of about two-hundred different bird species, but I have no idea what’s happening in their world of politics. Oh, you can turn in right here. This is my complex.”
Jiang Cheng makes the curve quite smoothly considering he’d almost passed it up.
“Do your parents care?” Huaisang questions. Then, a little gentler, “do they even know?”
Jiang Cheng coughs. He feels a swill of something…sad…well up in him all of a sudden.
“They don’t….I don’t…”
”It’s alright,” Huaisang says, even gentler. “We all do this in our own way… in our own time.”
He says nothing as he pulls into the front of the complex and dims his headlights. Huaisang is just sitting there, staring at him with an expression Jiang Cheng isn’t sure how to decipher.
“I would ask you in, but I know you have a thing to attend.”
A wave of embarrassment goes through Jiang Cheng as his earlier words are echoed back at him, clearly teasing for the way he had said it. There is a fondness in Huaisang’s eyes, though. It calms Jiang Cheng almost instantly. Then he finds himself smiling back.
Huaisang reaches out to touch Jiang Cheng’s cheek. “Thank you for saving me tonight, Dark Wolf. Have a good night.”
Before he can reply, Huaisang slips out of the car and bumps the door closed with his hip.
~*~*~ End Chapter One ~*~*~