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.

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[creeksidealtarboy]

"Cool."

He straightens his robes as they walk. "Show me whatever you want.'

[threedontknows]

He isn't sure that Aaron really cares, but when has that ever stopped him before? He drags him out of the family wing and into the main courtyard, over the long boardwalks overlooking carefully-combed rock and sand gardens and immaculately kept plants.

Huaisang talks. And talks. He talks just to fill the air, aware of his own awkwardness but hoping that it'll come across as charming.

[creeksidealtarboy]

And Aaron listens, soaking up each bit of information like a sponge, an arm eventually snaking around his waist.

"Huh. I like this," he mutters of a spot more muted than the rest. Understated while still being lovely, with ivy reaching across a wooden statue.

[threedontknows]

Huaisang's heart skips a beat. It was his mother's part of the garden, a place he made sure no one touched just in case some part of her still lingered on in this place. He liked it too, more than he could possibly say.

"There's a quince tree that still flowers," he tells him, pulling him gently towards a quiet part of the garden.

[creeksidealtarboy]

"Alright." He follows after him, taking his hand and linking their fingers together.

[threedontknows]

He smiles and leans against him, head against his tall shoulder. He can picture this life, walking arm-in-arm with Aaron though the various cultivation clans.

Huaisang takes Aaron to the neglected tree that still is somehow flowering and sits them down underneath it.

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron sits down beside him and crosses his legs.

"Tell me about your mom."

[threedontknows]

“I don’t know all that much, she died when I was just a baby.” Mingjue’s mom too, such was the misfortune of the Nie Clan of Qinghe. “But Father told me she was sweet and always smiling. She could dance and sing and play the dizi.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

"What's that?"

He doesn't really mind any of the lack of details. It's nice to have some memories that are passed down.

[threedontknows]

“Instrument made of a reed usually. It’s held like this.” He raises his hands and mimics playing a flute.

[creeksidealtarboy]

"Oh. Like a flute."

He reaches up to take his hand. "Do you play?"

[threedontknows]

"I do, but I'm nowhere as good as my mother, I'm sure." His talents lie elsewhere. "It brings me closer to her though when I do play."

He wonders if Aaron's ever thought of something like that with his own family members. He recalls the scars on his back and bottom -- his father, he's sure of it.

[creeksidealtarboy]

"Yeah." He laughs. "Not sure if my mom ever knew any instruments. She - she had lost her mind by the time I left," he admits.

Most of what he had told Huaisang in the past about his family was a lie. Something he almost regrets, but there had been a reason for it.

"Got really bad after my brother died."

[threedontknows]

Huaisang didn't know he had a brother, and he'd never heard anything about his mother. He brings his hand up to Aaron's hair and brushes it back.

"Tell me?"

[creeksidealtarboy]

"About my brother? His name was Samuel. He worked in the mines, like my dad. He died while fucking his girlfriend in his car on top of a hill."

He leans forward, plucking some blades of grass. "And mom was - I don't know. She was always a little weird, but she - lost it. She started talking to herself, talking to things that aren't there."

[threedontknows]

What a way to go. It's a shame his own brother most certainly died a virgin.

"Was she ill?" he asks, gentle with his prodding. He won't push if it's too painful for Aaron.

[creeksidealtarboy]

He considers his answer for a moment. "Her mind was," he finally decides. "But in a small town like that, there wasn't anything to be done about it. Heard she died after I ran off. Never asked how."

He was sure it was his own fault.

[threedontknows]

Grief can be like that, Huaisang knows that firsthand.

He moves a little closer to him, until their hips are touching and he can invite Aaron to lay his head onto his lap.

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron moves onto his back, lying on the grass with his head in Huaisang's lap, a position he is finding himself more accustomed to and is quite enjoyable.

"I - kinda don't want to go back to the barge, you know?"

[threedontknows]

Staying here with Aaron would be a dream. He would marry him, keep him as his Nie-fu ren, spoil him rotten and let him read and write to his heart’s content.

But he can’t hope for that life. The Barge would be coming for them both soon.

“I don’t either.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

Eventually, Aaron does get restless and he sits up.

"C'mon. Let's just walk for a while?"

[threedontknows]

Huaisang gets to his feet, but he doesn’t let Aaron get his walk without a kiss. It’s a good kiss too, a sound one that lingers before he finally pulls away.

“Let me show you the fish pond.”

[creeksidealtarboy]

"Yeah," he agrees, a little dizzy after the kiss. "What kinda fish does it got?"

[threedontknows]

"Fish for eating," he laughs, grabbing him by the sleeve and dragging him along. He's happy just to continue their walk and babble on inanely about this and that as it comes to him. He's easy to please, so long as Aaron's at least pretending to listen.

[creeksidealtarboy]

Aaron doesn't have to pretend. He soaks it all in, filing it away for later like he did before. The fish are interesting enough, but he is more interested in pulling him into a kiss by the edge of the pond. No one's around to see them, after all.