Chapter Text
I
We'll try…
When we're not so different
We will make amends
'Til then I'll just pretend - Bad Omens
The sun was coming from the wrong side of the room; however, he had fallen off the bed more than once, softly dragging his body out of bed, brain fuzzy. He sat on the toilet with his eyes still closed. His ribs ached, but nothing that a good day of sleep could not fix. Dragging his feet once more to bed, he pushes the other one to the side.
There's a soft grunt and he thinks, better if they wake up, that way they will leave and he can sleep. He pulls to regain possession of the blanket. The other grunts louder, followed by a soft gasp and then silence. He thinks of falling asleep, but the silence is now too uncomfortable. Slowly he opens an eye to look in the direction of whoever is sharing his bed.
Nie Huiasang stares at him, and the morning light changes the color of his eyes. They look almost liquid, hair disheveled and looking soft; he is holding the other end of the blanket.
Ah, they are both naked. Well, that happens when you sleep together, his brain affords distantly, and it takes him a second to react: “What… Stop gaping like a fish… It's annoying.” Jiang Cheng scoffs as he closes his eyes once more. “Don't tell me this is your first time?”
Silence still.
He opens his eyes all the way now, pushing on his arms to sit up slightly.
“I didn't know you… You were… are…” Huaisang hesitates and carefully sniffs the air, confusion flickering across his face. “I… For a second, I could have sworn your smell was sweet.. I thought… but no, you are a beta, after all,” Huiasang continues, his voice soft and a little uncertain.
“Yes. A beta,” Jiang Cheng warns. “Just a beta.” His tone was sobering, very firm. Just a beta. Absolutely nothing to examine there. Things were as he said they were. Nothing more.
“Mmm…” Huaisang pulls on his shirt spotting his underwear across the room, watching as Jiang Cheng by now is already pulling on his pants. “Do you wanna have breakfast? I can order something once I find my phone…” he offered, making a beeline for his underwear in an effort to get at least a bit more covered, only to turn around to find Jiang Cheng almost fully dressed once more.
“This…” Jiang Cheng speaks, however, avoiding looking at him directly as he tries to remember how to put it nicely.
“Yes?” Huaisang fishes his phone from his pants and is starting to type something, ready to have something brought to his place.
“This…” he waves a hand in the space between them. “I’m sure it was fun and all, but it won't happen again. Got it?”
Huaisang stops for a moment, hesitant in his words before nodding just slightly, looking a little deflated. “Sure. Nothing but a drunken night of fun.” He set the phone down. “...You sure you don't want breakfast?” he offered again, those eyes watching Jiang Cheng for something…
“No, I… I have to go home and shower and then get to work.” Grabbing his jacket and heading for the door, he waved over his shoulder. “Thank you, though.”
“No problem…” Huaisang says, already focusing back on his phone. “Let me know when you get home,” he adds as Jiang Cheng reaches the door.
He hesitates at the last thing, but it’s something Huaisang always tells everyone, so he pushes it aside as nothing with only a soft grunt as acknowledgement.
***
The problem is that the promise of not doing it again is that it does not last more than two weeks, thanks to Wei Wuxian. Or, at the least, Jiang Cheng needed to blame someone and his brother was there for it. Lotus Pier had managed to acquire another company, and after a draining week of negotiations, even his dad had pointed out just how tired Jiang Cheng looked, and that man was usually blind to his well-being.
So at the end of all this, Wei Wuxian had less suggested, more coerced him to accompany him to a bar to celebrate a job well done. He had also invited Huaisang, however; it's not like they were avoiding each other! It was just that Jiang Cheng was busy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Besides, drinking reduces the need for conversation, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong. It only delays it, until the following morning when they find themselves once more entangled in bed. Jiang Cheng’s alarm wakes him up way before seven, no matter how late he went to bed. He wakes up with a leg tangled in between his; warm breath on top of his chest. There's no way he can move up without waking the other.
And he definitely needs to get up.
“Why are you always so noisy in the morning…” Huaisang mutters, dislodging himself as Jiang Cheng reaches over to shut off the alarm, pulling the covers over his head. “If you wanna pee just get up.”
“Says the one who snores,” Jiang Cheng retaliates, but keeps his voice soft. It takes a few minutes for him to come back out of the bathroom after cleaning himself up, swearing to himself we are not doing the sticky walk ever again, not if it can be helped.
“I do not snore…” Says Huaisang indignantly as soon as he re-enters the room, already sitting up in bed. “Would you have the decency of having at least coffee this time before you bolt again, or…?” typing on his phone, parading in a rope
“I did not bolt.” Jiang Cheng gathered his clothes, sitting on the edge of the bed with a huff. “I actually had somewhere to be last time… Uhm…” Jiang Cheng says putting on his underwear and shirt.
“Was that a no…?” Huaisang asks casually as he looks up from his phone.
“Coffee sounds good actually,” Jiang Cheng admits, finally finding his pants, quickly checking his phone as he sits by the small table in the room. Huaisang pads over to sit by him and is also entertained with his phone. Jiang Cheng supposed he’s checking in with Nie Zonghui since his bodyguard hasn't come to take the door down. “So… I suppose we need to talk about this…”
“What is there to talk about? You said it wouldn't happen again.” He doesn't look up, though his tone is a little clipped as he continues to type, it now looks like a long email before finally looking up at him. “My question is do you actually regret that it did happen again? And if you say yes…” he continues before Jiang Cheng has a chance to say anything. “Was it for the lack of something? For science, of course. I mean you came… Twice?”
“Three times…” A soft blush starts spreading on Jiang Cheng’s face.
“Three, oh you mean the thing with the…” he moves his fingers in a circular motion, watching the blush darken even more while Jiang Cheng nods. A smile tries to escape however he feels it will be very improper at the moment. “Ahem, then…”
“We are friends… And sex always complicates things,” Jiang Cheng says just as a knock came at the door. Huaisang gets up to open it, letting in the server pushing a cart in while Jiang Cheng manages to spot at least one bodyguard outside. Allowing the server to set the table, Huiasang remains by the door until they finish and leave once more before he approaches the table.
“I wasn't sure what you liked for breakfast so I ordered a few things. Feel free to grab whatever suits your fancy.” He serves himself coffee with creamer, sipping slowly, savoring it with a small smile before picking up the thread of their previous conversation. “Sex always complicates things, and sometimes it just makes them… Different in a good way.”
“I don't have time for a relationship,” Jiang Cheng states, pouring himself a cup of coffee and grabbing a piece of toast, hoping that would end the conversation.
“Neither do I; however we can both benefit from an arrangement in which both our needs are being satisfied,” Huaisang says before taking another long sip of his coffee, and for a second Jiang Cheng did not recognize him. There was a thick layer of frost around him, keeping him distant and very much unlike the boy that would cry for everything and run to his older brother when they were in school together. “Ahh, A’Cheng don't look at me like that, I am simply proposing friends with benefits!” A wicked smile plays on his face as he speaks, and Jiang Cheng isn’t sure how he feels about that look.
“Friends with benefits…” Jiang Cheng parrots back, a slight frown knitting his brow as he chewed on the corner of his toast, musing it over. He dishes himself up a small serving of the fruit salad, because he didn’t remember the last time he’d gotten to enjoy fruit for breakfast. “I don't see how that is less complicated.”
“Well, I’ll make sure your needs are taken care of, you’ll see to mine, and we both get to have fun. We both know each other rather well so no guessing games, no struggle with dating apps, it gets my brother off my back and your family off yours. And no strings attached.”
Jiang Cheng pokes at the fruit salad for a few seconds without saying a word, Huaisang observing him right back with those clever eyes. Too clever. Nie Huaisang was too clever and this conversation wasn’t going the way he thought it would.
“So let me get this right…” Jiang Cheng starts, and he ignores the way Nie Huaisang barely contains his pleased look as he drinks his coffee. “Let's say I am interested. What does friends with benefits mean exactly to you?”
“We have sex without the dating dance, without the great expectations of a relationship, just fun. No strings attached.”
“Exclusivity?”
“Do you want to?” Huiasang stares at him with curious eyes. “I mean, I don't mind… I am clean, I know you are clean… Involving others would be… How about this: if others are needed, we will take it into consideration when it comes up. No random one-night stands.”
Jiang Cheng scoffed at his last words. “No strings attached…” he leveled at Huaisang.
“Mmm, it means you get to leave whenever you decide this no longer suits you,” he says, his tone serious for the first time in the morning.
“Or you…” Jiang Cheng added.
“Mmm.” To Jiang Cheng it looked like he wanted to say more, but Nie Huaisang said nothing else. He couldn’t help feeling like he needed to be asking more questions, to be more clear about this; however, Huaisang’s phone rang with a notification, snapping him out of his train of thought. “Sorry, check-in time with Dage.” He answered the incoming call with a brief smile before walking slowly towards the bathroom.