Aaron/Huaisang

[creeksidealtarboy]

It's nightfall by the time Aaron finally sees this "Impure Realm" that they took him to. He's hungry. He's filthy. He's thirsty. And there's nothing around him that's familiar. He has cigarettes in the pocket of his jeans and nothing else of his own. No note. No information.

Only the vaguely unsettling feeling that he's been deposited somewhere...wrong.

These people look like Huaisang. The robes, the way they move...it's familiar enough that, before they could unsheath their swords, he's throwing his hands out, asking for Nie Huaisang to their complete bafflement. But they loaded him up and took him. Goddamn.

Hopefully they sent someone ahead.

Comments

[threedontknows]

"That sounds rough," Huaisang says, taking a bowl of rice for himself. "Sounds like you shouldn't have been so cuddly."

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron snorts. "It wasn't cuddling. You left me alone in this fucking place. I could have been kidnapped."

[threedontknows]

Huaisang’s expression grows serious. “You’re safe here, in my home.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

He huffs. "Let me have my flimsy fucking excuse, man. Don't look too deeply into it."

[threedontknows]

He’s fine with the teasing, so long as he isn’t really frightened about something happening. No one would dare.

And as for the other reason - Huaisang hides a frown behind a bite of vegetables. Even if he was the one to initiate it, Aaron still needed a rational reason other than ‘wanted to spoon another man’. Well. Fine. He could work with this.

“Today we can go to the aviary — oh! Or the city. I can buy you something pretty.”

“

[creeksidealtarboy]

"I don't need nothing, but the city sounds fun," he admits with a smile, tossing the small date into the air to catch it in his mouth.

[threedontknows]

“Aaron, Aaron, it’s not about needing anything!” Silly man, it’s about acquiring what you don’t need just because you like it.

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron shakes his head. "I have only lived for shit that I need! I want nice things, but what money? Yours? Then I'll owe you and I already have a fuckton of debt."

[threedontknows]

“Owe me?”

Huaisang looks disturbed at the idea. He sets down his chopsticks and pulls out his fan.

“I don’t know what kind of man you take me for.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

He tosses up another date but misses this time. "Don't get offended about it. But you're being real nice to me. I ain't never had a friend be this nice without asking for something."

[threedontknows]

“You make a habit of cuddling with friends at night? Stroking their heads? Kissing them?”

He laughs a little bitterly. “You don’t even trust me now. That’s fine: I won’t press for it. You’re safe here until we go back to the barge, that’s enough.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not what I said at all." He sits up, reaching over to take his hand. "I told you that I don't do this shit a lot. The last time I had - this - she fucked around on me. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, man. C'mon. Don't."

[threedontknows]

Huaisang doesn't let him take his hand, though the annoyed look on his face disappears. "I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything."

[creeksidealtarboy]

His mouth presses into a line. "Fine. Then you can buy me some of my own clothes or something today."

[threedontknows]

His eyes immediately brighten. "Will you? Qinghe is really a nice little town. I'd really like to show you around."

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron laughs. "Yeah, alright. You gonna still be a bitch to me all day?"

[threedontknows]

"I don't know what you mean," he scoffs, fanning himself casually and picking up a small cup of tea. "I'm a gentleman, eloquent and well-mannered."

He nods towards the seat across from him, hoping he'd take it.

[creeksidealtarboy]

He does take it. "Yeah, you're a bitch." He grins, though, and leans back. "Your art's really nice, though."

[threedontknows]

"You think so?" He looks pleased. "I painted some of them."

[creeksidealtarboy]

"Show me one before we go," he demands, crossing his arms.

[threedontknows]

"There's one behind you." He'd given it to his brother some years before his death. He hadn't realized Da-ge had kept it until he'd found it buried amongst this things.

He points to the scroll just behind Aaron's shoulder. There's a mountain -- Qinghe in fact, and a willow in the foreground. Not his finest work, but it's sentimental.

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron turns to it, tilting his head as he considers it. Huaisang gave him a book on art once, so he has a better understanding of what he's looking at.

"It's good. I like the uh - the way the willow kinda looks by itself. Makes it feel a little wistful."

He pours himself a drink.

[threedontknows]

It was meant to symbolize serenity in loneliness.

“You have a good eye, young master Aaron,” he says with a grateful bow. “I painted it when I was locked in my room one day for refusing to go to saber practice. Missed a banquet and everything.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron snorts. So fucking dramatic.

"Was it worth it?"

[threedontknows]

Huaisang laughs. “Not spending the day in the hot sun, sweating in a not-fun way? Absolutely!”