Work Text:
It starts when Nie Mingjue is woken in the middle of the night to a scream.
Huaisang’s scream.
Nie Mingjue grabs his saber and runs. He meets his brother halfway there and Huaisang proceeds to throw himself up and into Mingjue’s arms as if he were seven, not seventeen.
Nie Mingjue carries him and does not fall because what is the point of his strength if he cannot use it to carry his didi? Huaisang is sobbing, and it’s not the tears he uses to beg out of saber practice or the cries when Nie Mingjue drags him there anyway. Huaisang’s whole body is shaking so badly he can barely talk. Even when he does, all Mingjue can hear are broken “Da-ge”s that stab right into his heart.
He tries to get Huaisang to talk but all the boy will say is da-ge as if he’s dying but there are no wounds, Mingjue checked!
It does not get any better when their cousins arrive.
Nie Zonghui, as Nie Mingjue’s right hand man with a nearby room, arrives first, but Nie Jiahao and the Nie twins are right behind him. Nie Mingjue hadn’t even realized Nie Lei and Nie Xiuying were in Qinghe. Let alone how they heard anything when their quarters are on the other side of the Unclean Realm.
Nie Mingjue’s confusion turns to utter bafflement when the four cousins, including three grown men, decide to take his holding of Huaisang as an invitation for a giant group hug.
It has been 3 weeks and Nie Mingjue is still irritated. People in the Unclean Realm are acting weird. At first he thought it was just his family – Huaisang has been clingier than he has been since he was 9 and father had just died. Nie Jiahao may have been raised to be Nie Mingjue’s bodyguard when Mingjue was just a child, but as he had gotten older, Jiahao had backed off at his request. (What strong sect leader needed a bodyguard?) But now, his older cousin is shadowing him with the same distance he did when Mingjue was 10. All Mingjue gets by questioning him are absentminded “Hmm, Mingjue-xiong?”s that do nothing to answer his fucking questions. Zonghui may think he’s behaving normally, but he keeps ignoring some of the orders Mingjue gives him for the ridiculous reason that he doesn’t think they’re good for Mingjue’s health. And don’t think he hasn’t noticed the looks being traded between his right-hand man and his brother. And Nei Lei and Nei Xiuying, while good disciples, usually never stayed in the Unclean Realm for more than a few days a time, too eager to go find something to fight. But since that night they haven’t been farther than one room from Huaisang, and since Huaisang refuses to part from Mingjue, he is feeling way too crowded.
And it’s not even limited to them!
Cook keeps making all Mingjue’s favorite dishes and when he went to question her about it, all she will say is “I’m just so happy to see you well, Sect Leader” and pat him on the head like he’s 12, not 23. Huaisang’s favorite treats have also been appearing with an alarming frequency. A few of the maids have been making sure the baths Mingjue requests after training are always exactly the temperature he likes.
A good fourth of the disciples have started training three times as hard as normal and getting the others to train with them. And while normally that’s not something Mingjue would ever complain about, he’s definitely heard them telling the others they have to be stronger to protect Nie Mingjue. He is not some Jin, he is a Nie and can protect himself just fine!
Nie Mingjue knows this is somehow his brother’s fault, because every single one of the strangely behaving sect members keep looking to him as if they actually respect him for more than catching birds and causing mischief. Elder Shufen asked Huaisang his option on sect business at the meeting the other day and Huaisang actually said something helpful.
Nie Mingjue has always known his brother is extremely intelligent. The problem has always been getting him to show it. But until now, Huaisang has always enjoyed his little games way too much, but now he’s actually practicing the saber with Mingjue and attending council meetings and acting strangely.
Huaisang is also never missing an opportunity to tell Mingjue that he loves him in an embarrassing repeated display of emotions. Nie Mingjue does not love it. He doesn’t.
Mingjue is going to get to the bottom of this or his name is no longer Nie.
Two months later Mingjue is starting to suspect he will have to give up the name Nie because his Sect is continuing to baffle him. Even the ones who weren’t acting weird in the beginning have begun to follow their lead.
Mingjue is an adult! Their Sect Leader! He does not need to be coddled!
And now this.
Huaisang arrives to today’s meeting happily announcing with a chipper little voice that he has a solution to the Nie Sect’s saber spirit problems like it’s no big deal instead of an answer to a problem that’s been hounding their Sect for hundreds of years.
He explains his idea which is long and complicated but involves both changing their style slightly and odd sounding rituals, but Huaisang claims they shouldn’t lose any strength. It sounds like strange hocus pocus to Mingjue but Elder Shufen and Nie Shi just nod and deem it to make perfect sense. The other council members look shocked, but with the support of those particular two council members, no one wants to oppose the idea. Nie Mingjue glares at Huaisang who immediately hides behind his fan. Nie Lei and Nie Xiuying snicker behind him.
Forget their saber practices, Mingjue is going to qi deviate from this.
Four months after that night, Qishan Wen hosts a discussion conference.
Huaisang insists on going.
Nie Mingjue orders all the disciples to stop with their ridiculous behavior when they’re out of Qinghe.
(Nei Lie, who is entirely too cheeky, whispers, “Does this mean you’re finally giving your permission for us to continue acting like this here? His sister giggles.)
Mingjue is touched when all his disciples bow and promise they will not reflect badly on the Nie Sect.
(It is only later in Qishan, when he is never without at least 4 disciples no matter what he orders, that he realizes what they vowed is not the same thing as what he asked.)
And then Huaisang almost starts a diplomatic incident.
The disciples from Gusu Lan are steaming mad and the head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang just keeps opening and shutting his mouth over and over again. When Nie Mingjue finally gets to the bottom of it, he understands this:
-Wei Wuxian pulled of Lan Wangji’s headband.
-It was probably an accident.
-The Lan headbands are only supposed to be touched by family or spouses.
-This does not, despite what Huaisang is still insisting, mean that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are required to marry.
“Huaisang!” Nie Mingjue grabs his didi by the back of the robes and starts to drag him out of the area. His poor friend Xichen just covers his face with his hands.
Huaisang does not know when to shut up and keeps calling out even while being dragged, “But they would make such a great couple!”
Wei Wuxian is muttering to himself, “But we’re both male.”
Nie Jiahao, who is clearly not fucking listening to his Sect Leader’s orders, bends over to whisper in the boy’s ears. Whatever he says, Wei Wuxian goes bright red. “Wha? Really!?” Jiahao pulls a slim book from his pocket and places it in Wei Wuxian’s hands with an eerie smile.
“Read it.”
The boy nods while sneaking glances at Lan Wangji.
Nie Mingjue notes that Lan Wangji is sneaking looks back.
“You should date!” Huaisang yells before Mingjue just picks him up and carries him off.
It is only when they’ve arrived home that Mingjue notices two more people came back with them then were supposed to.
Mingjue glares down at his family and sect who aren’t fucking listening to him and angrily points to the side. “Why did you bring two WENS home!!” The boy hides behind the woman who only raises one eyebrow as if she is not impressed.
Huaisang just laughs behind his fan, “Don’t worry da-ge, the rest of them will arrive soon.”
“THE WHAT!?!?”