bite your lip

by paene

Summary:

Mingjue’s been out of town for a month, and Huaisang mopes about it. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian continue to fumble around each other. There’s a fancy party.

Notes:

this sequel sat almost finished for three years with a handful of scenes missing, so i thought i’d finally join up the disconnected bits and post it unpolished, rather than letting it convalesce in my gdocs forever. enjoy!

***

“I know, Huaisang,” Mingjue interrupted herself with an enormous yawn, her jaw cracking audibly. “But I can’t say for sure. This merger is the biggest mess I’ve dealt with in ages. No one is compromising.”

“It’s been twenty-nine days, da-jie. I hate them.”

“I hate them as well,” Mingjue reassured her.

Huaisang pouted, unseen, and wheeled her desk chair across the room to topple into bed without the need to stand up. “I miss you.”

“I miss you as well,” said Mingjue immediately, and Huaisang liked the bloom of warmth in her throat every time she heard it.

“What time is it?” Huaisang asked, like she didn’t have the time difference memorised, and calculated it at least sixteen times a day.

“Nearly midnight,” Mingjue said. “You’re not in class?”

“This lecturer talks so slow, trust me it’s so much more efficient to just download the recording later and put it on double speed. I’m being smart!”

“Studying smart and not hard?”

“Da-jie! I’m maximising my time!”

“Okay,” her voice was low, and amused, and Huaisang loved it, “as long as you do listen to it.”

“I will,” Huaisang promised, “but right now I just wanna be talking to you, you can’t be mad at me for that.”

Mingjue hummed, and Huiasang pressed the phone closer to her ear. “No, I can’t be mad at you.”

“Ever?”

“Huaisang,” it was a laugh, and it was rough with sleepiness, and it had been a month. Huaisang flicked her fly open and wriggled her jeans down her hips one-handed.

“I should sleep,” Mingjue said, regretfully.

“Five more minutes?” Huaisang asked. She rubbed slow circles through her underwear. Five minutes was probably more than enough.

“Of course,” There was rustling, maybe of Mingjue pulling the sheets up, or turning over in bed. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I dunno,” Huaisang propped the phone carefully on the pillow next to her so she could use both hands. “Anything? I miss you.”

There was a low crackle as Mingjue sighed. “I miss you very much, Huaisang. I’m sorry this is taking so long.”

“I want you to come home,” Huaisang knew her voice sounded strained, due to the two fingers she was using to finger herself, and Mingjue clearly took her tone for distress.

“I want to be home, Huaisang.” It was the intense voice, her deep and focused one, and Huaisang bit back a gasp. “I don’t like being away from you, I never have. Especially not now.”

Huaisang regretted not pushing her jeans all the way off, because now they would have to be washed, and she couldn’t spread her legs the way she wanted to.

“Not now…” Parroting words back to Mingjue wasn’t really keeping up her end of the conversation, but it was the best she could offer.

“Not now that we’re… like this.”

“Yeah,” Huaisang knew that came out in a gasp, but she could feel her orgasm building. Words were an achievement.

“Huaisang,” and maybe Huaisang should just ask Mingjue to record herself saying her name so she could play it on loop every time she needed to jerk off, “Are you cryi—”

“Nng—” Huaisang bit her lip and thrust up against her palm, rubbing furiously to get it all out. She slid several inches down the bed, and thankfully the phone slid with her. “Nnn—no—hmmmm—not, not crying.”

“Okay,” Mingjue said dubiously. “You don’t need to hide it from me if you are.”

“I know,” Huaisang sighed, slowing to a gentle massage as she came down. “You’re so good.”

“Alright,” Mingjue still sounded unsure. “I’m sorry, Huaisang, I do need to sleep. You’re really not crying?”

“No, da-jie, I’m okay. You can go to sleep. Text me when you wake up?”

“Yes. Good night, Huaisang.”

“Night. I lo— I— hm. Good night.” Huaisang’s face burned when she realised she couldn’t hang up, given the state of her fingers, and was thankful a second later when the line went dead.

Huaisang heaved a huge breath in and out, then gently extracted both hands from her soaked underwear to begin cleaning up.

 

***

 

Their new relationship was only—Huaisang kept count—fifty-three days old, but jerking off while on the phone with Mingjue was, embarrassingly, something she’d been doing for years.

It was such an easy habit, and when Mingjue had left on her next business trip Huaisang had fallen back into it without thinking. It was only after she’d come the first time, stifling herself with a pillow like she’d always done, that it occurred to her she didn’t need to be secretive about it now, necessarily. They were a thing. They were dating, Huaisang reminded herself daily, and the thought still thrilled her.

She could just say what she was doing. Mingjue surely wouldn’t mind. Mingjue knew the state of perpetual horniness in which Huaisang existed. Mingjue reassured her constantly that she didn’t find it off-putting, and that she liked this about Huaisang. Huaisang had needled her until Mingjue said again, and again, that she liked it very much, and wasn’t sure why Huaisang needed her to repeat it so often because she wasn’t lying, and Huaisang would say yes, of course, but she just wanted to make absolutely certain, because there was still an hour left of this movie and Huaisang wanted to finish it while being fingered.

They’d fucked a lot in the weeks before Mingjue flew out again, but thinking back, Huaisang was sure she had been the one to instigate it almost all the time. And they had talked, extensively, so Huaisang knew Mingjue was very much into having sex with her. But now that she was alone in the huge apartment, and Mingjue was a voice on the line or a blurry video on the screen, she began to have doubts.

Huaisang knew she was—excessive. She could be a lot. Yeah, Mingjue liked having sex with her, but did she like it every day? Perhaps Mingjue hadn’t been the one to suggest sex because Huaisang wanted it literally all the time, and Mingjue simply never had the chance to bring it up first.

Or maybe—maybe, Huaisang thought miserably as she loaded the washing machine, Mingjue was regretting the change in their relationship now that she knew how much Huaisang wanted to fuck. She’d said that she thought it was hot how much and how easily Huaisang leaked, but Mingjue would hardly tell her if she found her pussy gross. She was much too kind for that.

Huaisang spun the dial back and forth before ticking it to the right setting, and slid down to sit with her back against the machine when it rumbled to a start. She hadn’t bothered to put on new underwear after throwing her used ones in the wash, and cold tiles felt nice. Morose pondering aside, she wasn’t going to get any work done until she’d gone at least a few more times, and jerking off when she was naked from the waist down, on tiles which could easily be cleaned, was efficient, and she worked efficiently.

 

***

 

“All I’m saying,” Wei Wuxian said carefully, “is that you shouldn’t feel bad for going without me.”

“Yes,” Huaisang was astonished Jiang Cheng could emit words through a jaw that tightly clenched. “You have said that. You keep saying that.”

“This is very painful,” Huaisang announced from where she was lying with her head in Wei Wuxian’s lap, “Can we pause this for like ten minutes.”

Wei Wuxian flicked her forehead. She stuck her tongue out at him.

“It’s a nice day, the sun’s out, and I’m trying to bask. Think about me, please.”

Jiang Cheng’s upside-down frown looked wounded. Huaisang reached over to pat him consolingly, and found that his pants felt much nicer than Wei Wuxian’s jeans. She wriggled until she could rest her head in his lap instead. Jiang Cheng made a very small pleased noise.

“Alright, we’ll stop talking about it.” Wei Wuxian said, and started to yank up grass by the handful. “It doesn’t need to be talked about, like I said, it’s not a big deal—”

Huaisang’s sigh was drowned out by Jiang Cheng’s snort. “Right, of course, it’s not a big deal to you, you don’t care about this, how stupid of me to ask—”

“I HATE THIS,” Huaisang threw her phone on the grass, “I just wanted to have a nice lunch! With my friends! I know I said you should talk to each other more but could you try to actually, I don’t know, use the same language?”

Huaisang whacked the nearest part of Wei Wuxian she could reach, which was his bony knee, which hurt. “Do you want to go with him? Shut up about whether Jiang Cheng should or shouldn’t take you. Just say what you want.”

Wei Wuxian was picking bits of grass out of his handful and flicking them to the side, and not looking at either of them. “It would be… messy. If I was there. You’d probably be uncomfortable. It’s not worth it.”

Huaisang felt Jiang Cheng’s ribs expand with a breath and elbowed him in the stomach before he could say anything. The air punched out of him in a wheeze and he glared down at her.

“Wait,” she said. “And Wei Wuxian, for fuck’s sake, what did I just say.”

Wei Wuxian threw the rest of his grass at her. “Alright, I got it. Yeah, I do want to go, but it’s going to cause problems—”

“There are already problems!” Wei Wuxian flinched back, and Huaisang was developing a headache. “If I didn’t want you to come anyway, would I have asked?”

“Now Wei Wuxian thinks you think he’s a problem,” Huaisang informed the sky, and she was going to start billing for this service. “Fix that.”

“But I didn’t say that,” Jiang Cheng said, staring at his brother. “I don’t think you’re a problem. Well, no, I do, you’re a huge pain in my ass, but I don’t think you’re a problem like this. A-jie invited both of us, and I know people are going to be assholes about it, but I care more about you than I do about all of them.”

Wei Wuxian was making a face that felt too open for Huaisang to look at, so she redirected her attention to the sky.

“If you want to come, you should come.” Jiang Cheng’s voice was still harsh, but the note of hesitance was there when he said, “Unless you really don’t want to. You just said you did, but, if you actually don’t, and you’re just saying that to make me feel better, then it’s—”

“I want to come. With you.”

“Good,” Jiang Cheng said, and Huaisang could see red creeping up from his collar. “Well. Good. You could have just said that from the start.”

The pause was extremely pregnant, and after a minute Huaisang nudged Jiang Cheng again. “Do you want me to get up so you can kiss?”

“No,” said Jiang Cheng hotly, at the same time Wei Wuxian said “Yes,” and Huaisang snorted when they both froze again.

“Until you figure that out, can we brainstorm a solution to my very serious problem?”

“Yes,” said Jiang Cheng, eager to shift the conversation, “let’s talk about Huaisang’s problem. What’s going on. Do you need me to talk to someone. I can punch people now, I’ve started this class—”

“No, jesus christ, why are you always offering to hit people, what do you think I—are you part of a gang? No, I just wanna ask Mingjue to have phone sex with me, but I don’t know how to bring it up.”

Jiang Cheng gave an unhappy wheeze, and Wei Wuxian lit up.

“I just don’t know if she’d be into it? She seems to like the sex when we have it, but she hasn’t brought it up since she left. What if she doesn’t miss having sex with me?” Huaisang kept her voice light, as though she were jokingly self-deprecating, and thought she did a pretty good job at hiding the real deprecation.

“Absolutely not,” said Wei Wuxian, which was why he was her best friend. “She definitely misses having sex with you, are you kidding? You said she calls every day, right?”

“Yeahhh, she says she misses me, but she hasn’t actually said that she misses—” Huaisang pointed to her crotch, and Jiang Cheng wheezed again. “And like, what if she thinks of her time in Beijing as a reprieve from, you know, the sex parts of what we have now, and she’s grateful that she doesn’t have to—”

“You just yelled at me for being stupid, come on, Huaisang.” Wei Wuxian patted her shin. “That’s very stupid. Just text your hot sister and say you wanna bone on the phone. She’ll be into it.”

“But what if she’s not,” Huaisang whined.

“Then she’s not,” grumbled Jiang Cheng, “and it’s still fine? Not everyone’s into… stuff. But if you want to, then just ask and see what she says. You’ve already done,” his ears were very red, “a lot of… stuff, and even if she doesn’t wanna do this particular thing, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t… enjoy…”

“Juicy marathon sex,” Wei Wuxian supplied.

“That,” Jiang Cheng said with a glare. “It doesn’t mean she doesn’t like doing that. Some people are shy.”

“Some people are,” Wei Wuxian agreed with a grin, and Huaisang was nearly jostled out of Jiang Cheng’s lap when he fumbled his phone out of his pocket, for no apparent reason other than to have something else to glare at.

Huaisang heaved herself into sitting with a huff. “I just don’t want her to be—I dunno? Put off? Because of how much I think about fucking?” She patted her hair and was satisfied that it wasn’t completely messed up.

“Has she ever said that?” Wei Wuxian knocked one of her hands away to pick grass out of her hair. “Like, ever indicated in any way that your raging horn is unwanted?”

“No,” Huaisang said slowly, “I guess not.”

“It doesn’t need to be a big deal,” and wasn’t that rich, coming from him, “She’s not going to be disgusted that you want to have sex over the phone, even if it turns out she doesn’t want to. She knows you’re a hot horny mess.”

“I’m very hot,” Huaisang said decisively, “and… you’re right. I guess. I’ll ask her tomorrow.”

“Great,” said Jiang Cheng, “super. You don’t need to tell us if—”

“Yes you do, I wanna hear the nasty details!”

“Alright, you can tell him, and I’m sure he’ll pass it along whether I—”

“Jiang Cheng, be supportive, Huaisang is in the budding stages of the relationship she’s wanted her whole life! We want all the updates! Including the sex ones!”

Jiang Cheng dropped his face into his palm, and Huaisang caught a muffled do we, as she swung herself into Wei Wuxian’s lap to give him a sloppy kiss.

“I will tell you everything, you’re the best—”

“Hey,” Jiang Cheng said suddenly, “Do you tell Huaisang about—when we—I mean—when you and—hey,” He crossed his arms tightly across his chest and went red when Wei Wuxian raised both eyebrows.

“I mean—yeah? Was I not—come on, Jiang Cheng, of course I’m telling Huaisang! It’s Huaisang!”

“Like, yeah, that we do it, but like—details?” Jiang Cheng reddened further under both their gazes.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed!” Wei Wuxian reached around Huaisang to grab both of Jiang Cheng’s hands and squeezed. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, you’re very good at sex! Or—well, you’re better at it now—”

“Wei Wuxian!” and Huaisang was knocked out of someone’s lap for the second time that afternoon as Jiang Cheng tackled him to the grass.

 

***

 

Huaisang sweated as the phone rang. She’d texted Mingjue saying she wanted to talk, and Mingjue had responded immediately to say yes, of course they could talk, did Huaisang want to call her now?

Huaisang had pressed the button to call before she’d really considered what she was going to say, and so of course when Mingjue picked up with a concerned “Huaisang?” the first thing she blurted was, “I’m sitting on a dildo!”

Huaisang had her phone on speaker, and felt every second of the silence that followed.

“Okay,” Mingjue said after a moment. “Do you—”

“I wanted to know if you want to have sex over the phone,” Huaisang said, “and I got worked up thinking about it, so I’m. I started before I called you. Do you want to?” Her voice was high, and, maybe, a little crazed.

“I’m in the lobby,” Mingjue said, “let me go up to my room. I’ll only be a minute.”

Huaisang stared at Mingjue’s icon, and readjusted the base of the dildo. “So—so, do you want to?”

“I’ve never done it before,” Mingjue said, sounding distracted, and Huaisang heard the faint ding of an elevator. “I’m not sure I’ll be very good.”

“You’re great, all you need to do is say anything, da-jie, honestly, your voice is so good.”

“Hm,” said Mingjue, and Huaisang heard the embarrassed note, and squeezed around the dildo.

“It really is, I love your voice, I’ve done this a lot—”

“You have phone sex a lot?”

“No—I—oh, shit.” Huaisang slumped forward to drop her head onto her pillows. “I mean, I’ve—done this a lot. Fucked myself while we’re on the phone. Sorry. I was gonna tell you, but I felt… kind of bad. I should have said something after we, you know, but I guess I was just used to hiding it?”

“Huaisang,” her voice was lower, and it sent a shiver down Huaisang’s spine that arrowed sharply between her legs, “you touch yourself while we talk on the phone?”

“Yes,” Huaisang whispered, “for years. Are you mad?”

“Years,” Mingjue said slowly, and Huaisang worked her hips up and down, breathing heavily into the side of the pillow.

“Are you mad?” she asked again, and her voice wobbled.

“No, Huaisang,” there was rustling and creaking, presumably as Mingjue sat on the bed, “I’m not. You do this a lot?”

“Yeah,” Huaisang licked her dry lips with her dry tongue, “heaps.”

“Is this what you were doing the other day, when I asked if you were crying?”

“Yes, da-jie I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be sorry,” Mingjue said firmly.

“I’m sorry,” mumbled Huaisang anyway, and struggled to sit up again to get more leverage as she rocked. “I really miss, hmm, having sex with you, do you miss having sex with me?”

“Of course,” Mingjue said, and Huaisang closed her eyes to enjoy the throb that gave her. “Tell me what you’re doing.”

“Uh, well, I’m—I’ve got the big purple dildo, the one with the bumps on, and it’s—in? me? I’m sitting on it,” Huaisang should have written a script, or something, this sounded ridiculous. “Um, I’m on my bed?”

“Do you have a towel down?”

“Yeah,” Huaisang twisted anxiously. Was Mingjue thinking about the laundry?

“Is there a lot?”

“A lot—yes, there is, there always is—” Huaisang slumped in relief. “so much, da-jie, it’s really, um—here—”

Huaisang grabbed her phone off the pillow and leaned back on one hand, using the other to angle the speaker between her legs. She set her heels on the mattress for leverage, and started bouncing. Her ears burned, pleasantly, when the squelching felt impossibly loud even to her. “Can you hear it?”

“Oh,” said Mingjue, “Huaisang.”

Huaisang dropped the phone in favour of rubbing her hand across her stomach and down. “Do you think about me?” she asked, and if her voice was shaking she could blame the enormous dildo splitting her open. “When you’re—have you thought about this? Do you think about doing this, when, when we’re not doing this?”

“I think about it,” Mingjue’s voice sounded strained. “I—yes, I think about you like this.”

“You do,” Huaisang collapsed forward onto her knees and into the pillows again when her thighs started to give out, and the bouncing slowed to a grind. “What about when you, um, did you ever—think about me when you touched yourself—”

“Yes,” said Mingjue, frank as ever, and Huaisang didn’t stifle her moan.

“Ohhh—did you? How many times? What did you think about? Tell me,” she begged.

“I’ve done that,” a pause as Mingjue thought, “maybe… four times? Five?”

“Nice,” gasped Huaisang, “and what did you—”

“I thought about—about you,” Mingjue hesitated, and Huaisang sped up. “I—oh, Huaisang, this is—”

“Yeah,” said Huaisang nonsensically, and honestly, she didn’t need Mingjue to elaborate; the knowledge that Mingjue was halfway across the world and masturbating to thoughts of Huaisang was already going to carry her through her next week of orgasms.

“I thought about eating you out,” Mingjue finally said, and Huaisang slammed down on the dildo so hard she felt fresh slick splatter on her thighs. “You taste—well, you taste nice. I can’t lick it up faster than it comes out, and I like that too. I like the sounds you make. I like all the sounds you make, but those ones in particular are very good. And—you open very easily.”

“I do,” Huaisang groaned against the pillow, using both hands to work her clit and rub around her hole where it stretched, “I love it when you—I love it—”

“And then, I thought about when you sit on my face—” the rest of Mingjue’s sentence was lost as Huaisang shoved her face deep into the pillow and whined through it, jerking her hips in circles so that the dildo rubbed against the right spot.

When Huaisang came back to herself she heard humming, and it took another moment to realise she was the one doing it. She unstuck her mouth from the pillow and groped shakily for her phone.

Mingjue was saying, “Huaisang?” in a tone that indicated it wasn’t the first time.

“Hm,” Huaisang dropped her phone next to her face and closed her eyes. “Yeah. Here. That was so nice.”

“I’m glad. Was I okay?”

“Are you kidding, you were so—that was so—I’m so happy you think about me when you do yourself, da-jie, that’s so hot, fuck—”

“Well,” Mingjue sounded faintly embarrassed, and cleared her throat. “Yes. I like that I can, now.”

Huaisang pondered the implications of that as she gripped the base of the toy to ease it out.

“I know we talked about when this started, for me,” Huaisang said, feeling for a dry corner of the towel to start wiping herself off. “and I know you said you wanted this too, before, but you didn’t—let yourself think about it? Do you know, um, when you started, wanting it? Can you… tell me that?”

“Huaisang,” Mingjue’s voice was tighter. “I don’t know if I… I repressed that very hard.”

“That’s okay,” Huaisang said quickly. “That’s fine. But I do want you to know, if it makes you feel better to think about, that I’ve been doing this,” she waved the dildo vaguely, realised she couldn’t be seen, and tossed it over the side of the bed, “since I was, I dunno, thirteen. Twelve. Whatever age I started jerking off.”

“You bought a dildo when you were thirteen?”

“Uh, yeah, it wasn’t like I could buy a vibrator, I was scared shitless you’d hear it.” Huaisang flopped onto her back and tossed the soaked towel to the floor as well. “When you taught me about sex—it was super cute, da-jie, but I grew up with the internet—I came, like, so many times that night. Hearing you say words like ‘appropriate lubrication’ and ‘mutual satisfaction’—”

“Please, Huaisang,” Mingjue sounded pained, but in a better way than before.

“Your voice is sexy,” Huaisang said, purely to hear Mingjue huff, “and I was such a horny teenager, life was very hard for me—”

“I’m sure,” Mingjue said, her smile audible, “I’m sorry you suffered.”

“You should be,” Huaisang snuggled deeper into her pillows with a contented hum. “Hey, did you… just now, when I was… did you, also?”

“Oh,” Mingjue paused. “I didn’t.”

“That’s okay! Just wanted to know.”

“I was definitely—affected,” Mingjue said hastily. “Even if I didn’t, you know—do that, myself. You’re very captivating, Huaisang.”

Huaisang was warm, and she pushed her sweaty hair away from her face. “Hey, uh—would you consider wearing a strap? I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I really want to see you in a harness, and get pounded into the—”

“I have one,” said Mingjue, and Huaisang shot up in bed.

“You what? You WHAT? Why don’t I know about this?” She scrambled to the edge of the bed. “Where is it?”

“The third drawer in my bedside table?” Mingjue sounded alarmed. “You have a lot of toys, Huaisang, and mine are nothing special, I didn’t think you’d—”

“None of them are yours,” Huaisang skidded into Mingjue’s room and yanked open the bottom drawer beside her bed. “None of them are ones you’ve… oooooh…”

It wasn’t a large collection, and they were all arranged neatly in their individual boxes, completely unlike the vibrant assortment Huaisang kept in a haphazard jumble in the huge box—really more of a trunk—under her bed. Huaisang balanced her phone on the edge of the mattress so she could use both hands to examine them.

Everything was either black or silver, and nestled in satin or foam. “Oh my god, da-jie,” Huiasang lifted a sleek leather harness, and ran a finger along the stitching. “These are expensive.”

“They’re not very exciting,” said Mingjue.

“Says you,” Huaisang lifted the dildo attachment that clearly went with the harness. It was smooth black silicone, moderate length, with an upward curve to the shaft and a bulbous head. Huaisang put it in her mouth.

“Hmm,” She sucked on it for a moment, then ran her nose and tongue down to the base and back up the other side.

“It doesn’t smell like anything,” she said, disappointed.

“I wash them,” Mingjue said in horror, “Please tell me you wash your toys, Huaisang.”

“Yeah, da-jie, of course I do,” Huaisang rolled her eyes. “I just, I dunno, I wouldn’t have minded if you missed a spot.” Mingjue gave the specific snort that meant she was holding back a laugh, and Huaisang felt that small warm-sad ache in her ribs, the one that happened much less, now, but still flared at odd moments, and more now that Mingjue was half a world away.

She cleared her throat and flicked her thumbnail under the thick head. “Have you had the black dildo inside you before?”

“I have,” Mingjue said, and Huaisang found the button to turn it on. It rumbled to life in her fingers, and she squeezed the base.

“Can I use it? I wanna use it. Can I do it in your bed?”

“You may,” said Mingjue, and Huaisang felt compelled to add,

“Full disclosure, I may have already been, um. Using your bed. To masturbate in.”

“I had a feeling,” Mingjue said dryly. Huaisang didn’t feel the need to clarify whether she meant before or after their relationship had begun to include sex. Mingjue probably knew.

Huaisang ran back to her room to grab a fresh towel, then spread herself in the middle of Mingjue’s unfairly enormous bed.

“Give me a minute, Huaisang, I’m just going to change.”

“Yeah,” Huaisang wriggled the towel under her hips. “Have you had dinner?”

“I’d just finished when you called,” Mingjue’s voice was muffled. “There was going to be drinking afterward. I can’t tell you how grateful I am I got out of that.”

“How did you manage it?” Huaisang tapped the dildo against her thigh.

“Well—you wanted to call me,” said Mingjue, clear again as she came back to the phone. “You said you needed to talk.”

Like it was the simplest thing. Huaisang prickled behind her nose, and she sniffed. “Good, I’m much more important than those losers. Phone sex with me is way more fun.” Her voice went up at the end, and she cursed it. She wasn’t asking a question, she was making a confident and sexy statement.

“You’re always the most important person to me, Huaisang.” Mingjue’s voice was firm.

“Um,” Huaisang said intelligently, and screwed her eyes tightly shut. “Yeah. Same. I’m gonna, um, fuck myself with your dildo now.”

Mingjue gave a note of assent. Huaisang pressed it on again and rotated the vibration settings until she found one that pulsed with a steady pressure.

The mood was different now; syrupy, and heavier. Mingjue’s pillows smelled faintly of the scent she sometimes wore, and the lighting in her bedroom was different. Huaisang rested the head of the dildo lightly on her stomach, and travelled it down to her mound, where she rolled it back and forth.

“You’re quiet,” said Mingjue. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Huaisang said. “I’m okay. I’m—I’m glad you’re doing this with me.”

“Of course,” Mingjue said. “I’d do anything you wanted.”

Huaisang let out a small sound of anguish that she couldn’t, unfortunately, disguise as arousal.

“You say things like that,” she said, “and I know you mean them—”

“I do mean them,” Mingjue said, then stopped herself. “Within reason. You’re still not allowed to put your mouth on my boobs while I’m driving.”

Huaisang choked on a wet laugh.

“Or put your hand down my pants at a red light. Or put your hand down your pants at a red light. No sex things while I’m driving, Huaisang.”

Huaisang slid her thighs wider and pressed the side of the shaft to her outer lips. “I only tried that once—”

“Three times, not including the time you played with your breasts for a solid fifteen minutes on the freeway—”

“I kept my shirt on!”

“It doesn’t count if your hands are under the shirt! You were so loud! You waited until I couldn’t pull over to stop you!”

“Hmmmm,” The dildo was rumbling just to the side of her entrance, and the sounds were getting wetter, “but you’re so hot when you’re mad, and then, when you’re mad and thinking about fucking me, your nose goes red and your mouth gets twisty and it’s so cute—”

“Huaisang,” Mingjue sighed helplessly.

“You’re so cute,” Huaisang said again, and finally pressed the round head to her entrance, where the vibrations started to send slick in a gentle patter around her folds. “I love, um, you.”

It was stupid, and made as little sense as anything else in Huaisang’s brain, but saying that had become harder, when all logic suggested it should now be easier.

“Soooooo much,” she said loudly before Mingjue could respond. She felt a little like crying, but she was damned if she was going to let that spoil this otherwise very hot phone sex she was having with her very hot sister, who was objectively the most perfect person Huaisang absolutely didn’t deserve.

“Fuck me heaps when you get back,” Huaisang was now gripping the shaft and the base with both hands to drag the dildo up and down. “I’m gonna strap this on you the second you walk in and you’re gonna, uh—uhn—fuck me right there on the floor.”

“Alright,” it wasn’t fair that Mingjue’s voice was so deep, Huaisang could hear it in her heart, “I can do that for you.”

“You can do anything to me,” Huaisang gasped as she drew her knees up and out and used the head to draw fast circles in her folds, catching at her entrance but not pushing in. “I want you all the time, do you know, how much I—” She was starting to shake, and the towel under her ass squished with the jerking of her hips.

“You’re close?” Mingjue asked, and it was—definitely raspy. Huaisang whined in answer.

“If you’re—touch your breasts for me, if you’re not doing that already,” and Huaisang wrenched one hand from the dildo to slap it to her chest, squeezing her boob so hard it was absolutely going to leave fingernail welts, because Mingjue was giving her a directive while they were having sex.

“I’m—mm—doing it,” she said in between gasps, tugging her nipple in counterpoint to rotating the dildo just under her clit, and it lit up a live current between the two. “Feels—um—really good, I wanna—tell me, I wanna—can you say—”

“Come now,” and Huaisang slid the thick head the inch she needed to jam it against her clit, and her hips jerked off the bed. A thin stream shot into the air, sputtered down, and arced up again as she ground the dildo harshly, pushing past overstimulation and almost into pain.

When it really started to hurt, she fumbled for the button to turn it off, and her hips gave a final twitch at the loss of sensation. Her throat felt very dry and a little scratchy. She didn’t remember screaming, but, you know, it was possible.

Huaisang starfished shakily in the sheets until one of her limbs brushed her phone, and grappled weakly for it.

“Hey,” she said sleepily when she dragged it up to her face.

“I hope that was the sound of ‘Huaisang having a very nice orgasm’ and not ‘Huaisang being murdered’—”

“Huaisang had a very nice orgasm,” Huaisang curled her toes and stretched out her legs, which were still shaking. “It felt a little like being murdered.”

Huaisang lifted her head the barest inch to glance down the bed before letting it drop. “Your sheets, um, didn’t survive the splash zone. Sorry.”

“I should think about buying a tarp when I get back,” Mingjue said consideringly, and Huaisang shrieked.

“Da-jie! Stop! Why do you pick now to start being funny!”

“Who’s being funny?” Huaisang dropped her phone on her collarbone so she could feel Mingjue’s voice through her chest. “Think about it, Huaisang, it’s very sensible. We could lay it over the bed, and hose it off when we’re done—”

“You’re so mean, stop teasing me, it’s not my fault!”

Mingjue’s laughter was so good on her skin, even through the stupid phone.

“I’m sorry, Huaisang, I’ll stop.” If Huaisang closed her eyes she could pretend that the smile she heard was against her collarbone, and it was warm lips instead of cold glass.

“You’re ruining my afterglow,” she mumbled, and struggled an arm up from the sheets to drape it over her eyes. “It’s rude. Now is when you’re supposed to tell me how good and pretty I am, and how hot it is when I come like that.”

“It’s hot when you come like that,” said Mingjue obediently, “even though I didn’t see it, I’m sure it was very hot. Check my dresser before you leave, that sounded like it could have made it across the room—”

“Stooop—”

“—and you know I find you so pretty, and I always think you’re good.”

Huaisang choked on her next inhale, and pressed her elbow more firmly into her hot eyes. She did just tell Mingjue to say it, so she could only blame herself.

“Do you want to keep going?” Mingjue cleared her throat, and there was some shuffling. “I’m just going to boil some water.”

“Mm,” Huaisang said, tracing light patterns on her sternum. “You’d really just keep talking to me while I do this, for as long as I want?”

“I’ll need to sleep eventually? But it’s still early, it’s fine.”

Huaisang lifted her phone off her chest and held it above her head, staring at her sister’s unsmiling profile picture until it blurred. “I think I’m… okay, for now. Can we just, um, talk some more? Before you go to sleep?

“Of course, Huaisang.”

Huaisang rolled over and winced as part of the towel came with her. “Just give me like, five minutes to wipe this up.”

“Clean my dildo properly,” said Mingjue, and even though the stern tone was played up for effect, it still sent a pleasant tingle between Huaisang’s shoulder blades as she shuffled off the bed.

“Yeah, I’m doing it. Hey, can I use some of your underwear when I jerk off later?”

“I thought you said—”

“I’m done for now, but can I use your underwear to touch myself later?”

“I also wash my underwear, Huaisang.”

Huaisang tucked her phone into her neck to bundle the towel and sheets off Mingjue’s bed. “If you really loved me you’d leave me a pile of dirty laundry before you go.”

Mingjue groaned, and Huaisang grinned into her armful of sheets.

 

***

 

Jiang Cheng’s palms felt too large for his hands, the way they always did when he kissed Wei Wuxian. It made very little sense to him how small Wei Wuxian felt in his hands, given that his adoptive brother was taller, and older, and had been reminding him smugly of both facts since his growth spurt at fifteen. Certainly Jiang Cheng was broader, because to his knowledge Wei Wuxian hadn’t touched a set of weights ever in his life, and frequently voiced a violent allergy to gyms.

Still, Jiang Cheng’s hands shook as he squeezed the thin softness of Wei Wuxian’s hips and met the sharp bone underneath. It was stupid. They’d been doing this for months, and Jiang Cheng still felt like he was thirteen and all hands and feet whenever he had Wei Wuxian in his lap, which appeared to be his preferred location when they did—this.

Wei Wuxian let go of his lower lip, which was for the best, as it felt like it would probably split if he chewed any longer, and mouthed wetly along to his ear to start nibbling that instead. He was never still—ever—but especially not when they did this, twisting his spine in little wriggles, hands like warm spiders, plucking Jiang Cheng’s clothes and nipping his skin. It was overwhelming in a way that made Jiang Cheng feel the only thing he could do was hold on, his too-large hands shaking as he adjusted and readjusted his grip on the warm wet collection of shifting limbs and lips and teeth in his lap.

“I’m not complaining,” Jiang Cheng gasped when Wei Wuxian started licking his neck, “but what did I—can I at least, like, take off my shoes f—”

“You got takeout from the place I like,” Wei Wuxian’s long fingers were pulling Jiang Cheng’s shirt from his waistband, and he spoke in between small licks down the line of Jiang Cheng’s throat, “I didn’t know you were gonna do that.”

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng’s voice was very embarrassing, but he hadn’t prepared for this. “It gets you in the mood when I—bring home dinner?”

Wei Wuxian’s hands had crawled around his waist to find his fly, which he was undoing with a deftness that felt profoundly unfair. “Can I suck your dick?”

“Hrem,” that wasn’t a word, “Don’t you wanna—eat? First? If you’re so happy that I bought—”

“It won’t take long,” Wei Wuxian said, and slithered to the floor between Jiang Cheng’s legs, rubbing his hands soothingly down Jiang Cheng’s torso when he squawked.

“Hey fuck you—”

“Shhhh, you know I like it, it’s so cute,” Wei Wuxian shouldered Jiang Cheng’s thighs wider and their shitty plastic hall chair creaked. He peeled open the triangles of Jiang Cheng’s fly. “Let me do it?”

Wei Wuxian set his lips softly against the straining bulge of his boxers and looked up at him beneath his stupid eyelashes, and Jiang Cheng put both hands over his own face to block out the sight. If he went off before Wei Wuxian even pulled him out he’d have to spend the rest of the night hiding in his room, and he’d already done that once this week.

“Go on then,” he said into his hands, “but if your food goes cold it’s your fffff—”

Wei Wuxian fit his cock against the back of his throat and gagged immediately, and the fluttering against the head when Wei Wuxian refused to pull back had Jiang Cheng ripping his hands from his face to grip the sides of the chair, digging his palms into the plastic, because he was going to last longer than a minute, Wei Wuxian’s food was going to go cold, the little shit—

“Ngghhh—” Jiang Cheng clenched his jaw until his teeth hurt when Wei Wuxian pulled his boxers down further to tuck them under his balls, rolling his long fingers against the soft skin. “Not that, n—”

Wei Wuxian pulled off with a hard suck and jacked him fast with his other hand, keeping his face close so that Jiang Cheng’s dick bumped and slid against his chin. “We can go again later, I just really want you to come in my—”

Jiang Cheng slapped a hand back over his eyes and squeezed them shut, but not before he saw the first rope of come land on Wei Wuxian’s face. Wei Wuxian made a noise of indignation and quickly fit his mouth back over the head, one hand still pumping the shaft, his other thumb pressing gently into the divot between his balls. Jiang Cheng curled forward and wheezed, ears filled with his own pulse and the noisy sucking of Wei Wuxian stripping his dick and swallowing it down.

“I’m done, I’m done, get—” Jiang Cheng pushed weakly at Wei Wuxian’s shoulder, and his brother let it slip from his mouth with a final slurp.

“Thanks,” Wei Wuxian said over Jiang Cheng’s hissing as he lifted his soft cock and gently tucked it back into his boxers, then smoothed over it, apparently to make him hiss again. “Let’s eat!”

Wei Wuxian bounced to his feet, his very obvious erection now at eye-level, and held out a hand for Jiang Cheng to take. It was the hand he’d just used to wipe off the streak that had landed on his cheek, and Jiang Cheng glared up at him through his bangs.

“What about,” Jiang Cheng fumbled to close his zipper, pointedly ignoring the dirty hand, “that?” He nodded at Wei Wuxian’s crotch.

“Later! Let’s eat first,” Wei Wuxian leaned down to grab his wrist anyway, and Jiang Cheng groaned in disgust. Wei Wuxian hooked the bag of abandoned takeout from the floor with his other hand and dragged him to the kitchen.

“It feels like,” Jiang Cheng said, after they’d washed their hands and nearly finished eating, “me getting dinner is… a low bar, kind of. For, uh, sex gratitude.”

Wei Wuxian sighed and dropped his chopsticks in the greasy container. “Next time I’ll try harder to suck your brain out of your dick, if this is where it goes afterward. Yeah, I was happy you got us food I like, but I also just super like having your dick in my mouth? It’s not that deep, Jiang Cheng.”

“Fine, I was just—fine.” Jiang Cheng crossed an arm over his middle and frowned at the table.

He heard Wei Wuxian’s heel tapping a soft staccato as his thigh bounced, and Jiang Cheng continued staring at their empty takeout boxes. He wasn’t even—he should have screened that before it came out of his mouth, it sounded dumb and petulant, and he couldn’t think of anything else to say now, and he did this every time.

Wei Wuxian got up from the table, and Jiang Cheng shrank further into himself, because Wei Wuxian was going to go and play video games in his room for the rest of the night. And probably call Huaisang to talk about his neurotic little brother overthinking a blowjob, and Jiang Cheng was going to end up hiding in his room tonight anyway because he’d ruined things yet again—

“Oof,” said Jiang Cheng when Wei Wuxian landed sideways in his lap, and scrambled to sit up properly so they didn’t both go sliding off. “Watch it, if you break another chair—”

“You can fix it again with your big manly muscles,” Wei Wuxian looped his arms around Jiang Cheng’s neck, and Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes to fight the upward quirk of his mouth.

“I know you do nice things for me,” Wei Wuxian said. Jiang Cheng stared at the collar of his shirt to avoid his eyes. “You do nice things, even if you say the absolute suckiest things. I’m not, like, overcome with gratitude because it’s rare that you think about me. I know you do,” Jiang Cheng could feel heat all up his neck, and Wei Wuxian’s gaze felt like a physical thing on the side of his face. “It’s just nice, and I want to thank my boyfriend,” he stuttered a little on the new word, and Jiang Cheng felt a simultaneous thrill and a flush of mortification, “by sucking his very pretty dick! That’s all.”

“Stop saying my dick is pretty,” Jiang Cheng mumbled automatically. Wei Wuxian kissed his cheek, which felt red-hot.

“Love your pretty dick,” Wei Wuxian rubbed his face into Jiang Cheng’s, always catlike, “love it, it’s so perfect, it fits so nice in my hands and my mouth and my ass—”

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng said loudly, and Wei Wuxian laughed and kissed him.

They made out until Jiang Cheng’s arms began to strain from holding Wei Wuxian in his lap, and Wei Wuxian was making soft little moans into his mouth that made his dick feel very trapped. Wei Wuxian patted down his stomach and made a pleased noise when he felt around the hardness, and broke the kiss to stand up.

“I need that in my butt, let’s go.” He hauled Jiang Cheng off the chair with both hands and pulled him towards his room.

“Shower first,” Jiang Cheng stumbled when Wei Wuxian swerved mid-step to yank him in the direction of the bathroom instead, sticking out his tongue.

 

***

 

Mingjue had been gone for sixty-one days, and she was due back at the apartment in an hour, and Huaisang was having a heart attack.

She’d spent the afternoon cleaning in a frantic whirl. The apartment wasn’t even that dirty, but she wanted Mingjue to be impressed. She ran back and forth between cleaning the toilet, scrubbing down the sink, cleaning the other toilet, and decided to slow down after nearly falling off the counter while trying to reach the top of the rangehood to wipe it down. Had they ever cleaned that?

Huaisang had already needed to change her underwear twice since getting out of bed—she hadn’t even done anything, but slick still gathered slowly as she crouched to scrub at a stubborn mark on the tiles, or leaned up to wipe down the cupboard handles. She tried just going without underwear, but when she caught herself staring at a mop handle wondering if it would give her splinters, she decided perhaps feeling the breeze was making it worse.

And now Mingjue was due back in forty minutes, and Huaisang had already had a shower and scrubbed herself every place a person could possibly be scrubbed, then moisturized her whole body, then trimmed down her pubic hair into a neat shape against her skin, admired the result in the mirror, rubbed off in front of the mirror, cleaned out her vagina again, and now she was standing in the middle of the living room in dry clothes, having a heart attack.

Huaisang unlocked her phone, which was still open to Mingjue’s last message.

💖da-jie💖💦💦💦
Have landed. I’ll be home around 6pm.

Huaisang had sent a string of stickers and emojis in response, her thumbs stuttering, and in the jumble she’d accidentally included a hammer emoji and a sponge emoji. Which could still be considered appropriate, actually.

She tabbed out and tabbed into her chat with Wei Wuxian.

nie huaisang
HELP????

wei wuxian
WITH????

nie huaisang
i cant remember how to be normal

wei wuxian
babe… when have u.,,, ever

nie huaisang
im panikcking

wei wuxian
what about

nie huaisang
just like in general

wei wuxian
deep breaths and whack off

nie huaisang
ive already DONE THAT

wei wuxian
then lie down on the floor or something??? what are you so worried about??? tell me what’s wrong

nie huaisang
i dont know….

Huaisang collapsed onto the couch and let her phone bounce onto the cushion next to her. She prodded the overlapping butterflies in her chest. Nervousness, granted. Excitement, expected. Anticipation, obvious. Anxiety.

Huaisang curled her feet up onto the couch and sank deeper into the backrest. Anxiety, okay.

Huaisang stared into the side of the couch cushion for a while, following the line of each tiny stitch as they tucked neatly over and around, over and around. Eventually she picked up her phone to send another text to Mingjue.

nie huaisang
also we don’t have to have sex tonight!!!!! you can tell me if youre not feeling it omg you must be really tired just ignore everything i said earlier

She was putting her phone back down when it lit up immediately with a reply.

wei wuxian
thats super sweet i AM rly tired actually, ruin me with your insatiable pussy tomorrow

nie huaisang
i hate u!!! that was for dajie!!! aueiuajfdbk

wei wuxian
huaisang
you have to see how ironic it is
that you always tell me and jiang cheng to stop assuming a disaster where there isn’t one

nie huaisang
i know i know i knwo

wei wuxian
what are you really worried about?

Huaisang’s heart shot into her throat and her phone slipped through her fingers when the key turned in the lock, loud and sudden in the silence of the apartment. She shot off the couch and ran down the hall in time to throw herself at Mingjue as she was leaning her suitcase next to the shoe rack.

“Da-jie!”

Mingjue caught her easily, closing the front door behind her with her foot as she lifted Huaisang into her arms.

“Huaisang,” It was a breath against her hair, and it may just have been Huaisang knocking the wind out of her, but it sounded—it sounded—

“Hi,” Huaisang warbled into her neck. “I missed you.”

Mingjue’s arms were tight around her, one hand coming up to cradle the back of Huaisang’s head and the other forearm pressing into the dip of her spine, moulding their bodies together. Huaisang was held, and she felt something shake its way loose from her chest, squeezed out by the embrace that was constricting her lungs.

“I’m not getting down,” she muffled into Mingjue’s neck, where she could taste sweat and airplane air, “Carry me?”

Mingjue didn’t even put up a token objection, and instantly shifted her grip to wrap a hand under Huaisang’s ass. Huaisang tightened her arms, though she was in no danger of falling, and Mingjue walked them down the hall. Mingjue was breathing deeply—smelling her hair, Huaisang realized, and tucked her face closer, feeling tears already starting to gather behind her nose.

Mingjue lowered them to the couch and Huaisang didn’t even make an attempt to move, only settling herself more securely in her lap. Her arms were still around Mingjue’s neck, and her knees were tucked into her sides.

“Huaisang?” Mingjue’s voice was gentle.

“Mm.”

“You’re crying.”

“Only a little bit,” Huaisang inched back the bare minimum to look into her da-jie’s face and blinked the blurriness away. “Just, you know, the normal amount.”

Large thumbs brushed under her eyes as they fluttered shut. Huaisang caught her breath at chapped lips pressing against hers. She made a sound—loud, probably embarrassing—and melted.

Mingjue continued to hold her face, and the grip was gentle, but it felt like an anchoring weight, keeping Huaisang from sliding apart. She let herself be kissed. Mingjue, this time, was the one to run her tongue along Huaisang’s lips to open them, and Huaisang gasped again.

“So I said earlier that we were going to—as soon as you came back—but are you tired? You must be tired. Do you wanna sleep? Or nap? You can, as long as I can sleep with you. Or like, it’s pretty early, so. As long as I can lie next to you? While being awake and very quiet?”

Mingjue had an expression that looked, for a second, as through she were trying not to cry, which was impossible.

“Huaisang,” she said, then paused to kiss her again, like it was involuntary, “I’ve missed you very much.”

“Cool. Would really, uh, suck if it were only me,” Huaisang’s voice wobbled and she tucked her face back into Mingjue’s neck.

One of Mingjue’s hands was cradling the back of her head, and the other making slow circles on her spine. “I’m not tired. Not for you, or for this. If you want to have sex now, I definitely… also want it now.”

“Thank god,” Huaisang reached behind to grip the zipper on the back of her skirt and ran it all the way to the hem. It separated with a dull clink and Huaisang tossed the whole skirt aside without needing to get up.

Mingjue let out a surprised bark of laughter and ran her hands down Huaisang’s hips, feeling for underwear, of which there was—of course—none.

“You planned that move, I can’t believe it.”

“My wardrobe is cultivated for efficiency, da-jie.”

“If I pull on your sleeve, will the whole shirt fall apart as well?”

“Oh I wish,” Huaisang trailed her hands from Mingjue’s neck to her shoulders to her boobs. She tugged the lapels of the blazer.

“I keep telling you that flying business doesn’t mean you need to dress like you’re going to a meeting,” Huaisang started flicking open the buttons of the shirt. “This can’t be comfortable to fly in. Do you like these pants? This doesn’t feel like an expensive suit.”

“Not particularly?”

“Can I come on them?”

Mingjue’s hands had moved to her waist while Huaisang was working on her buttons, so Huaisang felt her fingers flex. “You—you can. How do you want—”

“Just like this. It’s scratchy enough, and I sort of need to come right now, so I wanna just. Rub on you? It’ll take like thirty seconds, I’m really close, then we can go again properly.”

Huaisang found herself kissing Mingjue’s neck with no memory of making the decision. “I’ve been thinking about you all day, and you know what that—how that gets me. And I haven’t been touching myself—well, okay, just the once—so I’m really, I just need to take the edge off, then we can—I’ve got a whole thing planned—”

“You’ve been holding off,” Mingjue’s voice vibrated through Huaisang’s lips on her throat. “For me.”

“I’ve been saving it up for you,” Huaisang steadied her hands against Mingjue’s shoulders as she realigned herself to straddle one of her thighs. She spread her knees to sink down, and had the pleasure of seeing Mingjue’s eyes go wide. She knew she was more than wet enough to soak through the material immediately; Mingjue had to have felt it.

“I was gonna ask if I could suck on your boobs while I did this,” Huaisang pressed her cheek into Mingjue’s cleavage, revealed by her partially-undone shirt, as she started to rock her hips, “but I’m really—this is gonna take seconds—fuck—”

Mingjue’s hands were still wrapped around her hips, but they didn’t move her, just provided reassuring weight as Huaisang jerked her hips in a fast grind. The rough material gave good friction, which led Huaisang to yank up her shirt and arch forward so she could feel the same material of the blazer scrape on her nipples. Almost immediately, her hips stuttered and slid back and she came, soundlessly, her mouth open and gasping against Mingjue’s shirt.

“Oh... I can feel you clenching on my leg.” Mingjue’s hands did move her, now, pressing her down more firmly against her thigh muscle.

“Fffuck,” Huaisang’s hips jumped again, dragging her clit on the trouser seam, and she felt more slick leave her in a shudder. “Don’t say things like that, oh my god, d—your mouth, what—”

“Did you come again, or were you still coming?”

“How do you expect me to tell,” Huaisang’s arms were still loosely around Mingjue’s neck, but she’d slid down after she came, and was barely hanging on. “Lift me up so I can kiss you?”

Mingjue gathered her back into her lap properly so Huaisang could attack her mouth with her usual sloppy post-orgasm enthusiasm. One hand braced again on her lower back, and the other curved down between her cheeks, until it found wetness. Huaisang hiccuped into her mouth.

Mingjue reached further to cup Huaisang’s folds in her palm, with no real purpose, it seemed, other than to hold her. Huaisang broke the kiss to gasp into her cheek.

Mingjue removed her hand, which made Huaisang whine. She rubbed Huaisang’s thick slick between her fingers, consideringly, before putting them in her mouth.

“Da-jie oh my god are you trying to killm—fuck—”

“I missed the taste,” Mingjue said, and her voice could almost pass for steady, but Huaisang could see her wide pupils and the quickened rise of her chest.

“Shit,” said Huaisang, “fuck. Shit. Oh my god. Please say I can make you come tonight, if you, if you wanna, if you feel like—”

“I want that,” Mingjue reached down to gather more slick to suck from her fingers, and Huaisang briefly considered dying, because this was as openly horny as she’d ever seen her sister, and it felt like a heavy blow to the back of her head. “But I want you first.”

“Great,” Huaisang tried to remember any words, at all, that she knew. “That’s great. So great, in fact, hm—mm—wait,” she gasped, and Mingjue’s hand immediately stilled where she’d started to rub with purpose between her legs.

“Yes to all of that—but I had, um, an idea, of what we could—it’s something I’ve wanted to do.”

“Tell me,” Mingjue ran her free hand through Huaisang’s hair to tuck it behind her ear, a simple gesture that wanted only touch. Huaisang needed to breathe in and out twice before she could speak again.

“I was wanting—I was hoping,” she said, “if you might, fuck me in front of a window?”

Mingjue stared at her for a moment, then turned her head to look at the floor-to-ceiling window on the other end of the room. Huaisang saw her eyes snap down to the towels already laid underneath it, and the black shape of the harness folded in the middle.

“I said I had a thing planned,” Huaisang said shakily when Mingjue turned back. “Welcome to… the thing.”

Mingjue’s hand had been resting warm and unmoving against her pussy, but now she moved it to grip the outside of her thigh. Anxiety rose in a thin line from Huaisang’s sternum.

“Totally cool if you don’t want to! Totally cool. But I was thinking about what I wanted to do once I got that strap on you—and there are so, so many things—but a big one was you, me, and… window.”

“Window,” Mingjue repeated. Huaisang couldn’t read her tone.

“Yes,” she whispered, and tugged the hem of her shirt down, uselessly. It didn’t even make it to her navel.

“You want other people… to see us.”

“Sort of?” Huaisang stopped tugging when one of Mingjue’s hands covered hers. “I think I want the chance that someone could see us. Mostly that someone could see me. All of me, really, because in this scenario I’m very naked and you’re not.”

Mingjue took a breath, and Huaisang used the brief second to panic. “Forget I said anything! Actually! It’s a dumb idea, forget it, let’s go have sex in your bed—”

Mingjue tugged her back as she was halfway to standing up, and Huaisang collapsed against her chest. Mingjue manoeuvred her until she was sitting sideways across her lap, tucked into her side. Huaisang dropped her head onto the comforting pillow of boob.

“I just want to understand,” Mingjue said. “I haven’t said anything yet.”

“That’s sort of an answer already, though.” Huaisang was grateful she no longer needed to make eye contact, and snuggled deeper. “It’s just one of the things I think about that gets me off. That someone could be watching me, or the risk that at any moment someone could. And I kept thinking, like, how hot it would be if someone on the street looked up and saw me bouncing on your dick. But I don’t wanna do it if you think it’s bad.”

“So it’s not… only for me,” Mingjue said, almost to herself. Huaisang’s head snapped up.

“No—no, what? Is that a—I don’t mean I want those people, no, yuck, it’s the opposite, I want them to look at me and wank miserably because they can’t have me. I only want you.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Mingjue’s arm was a warm heavy weight across her shoulders. “I only meant, I’d thought that the way you like to—to show yourself, was just for me.”

“I’m sorry,” Huaisang began, but Mingjue cut her off with a sharp squeeze around her shoulders.

“Huaisang. Stop jumping to apologies. My understanding needs to catch up, and that’s all. I’m always just trying to catch up with you. Have I ever told you that anything you are is bad or wrong?”

“No, but. You’re too nice to tell me, probably.”

A smile pulled the corner of her perfect mouth. “I’m not, and you’re not. You surprise me, a lot, and you only shock me sometimes, and only because my imagination isn’t nearly as good as yours. I think this is…” Mingjue trailed off to fix her eyes beyond Huaisang’s shoulder, in the direction of the window.

“We can… talk about this. I’m open to it, but I need to consider some practicalities. About your safety.”

Huaisang nodded furiously. “Yes. Totally. Discussion. Very cool. Table it for later. I’m gonna bring the strap over here. Or to the bedroom! Where do you—”

Mingjue caught her cheeks and stopped the words with her own mouth, and said, “Go bring it here.”

Huaisang slithered to the floor with an unflattering squelch as her pussy slid against itself, and trotted over to the window. She bit her lip, then turned to face Mingjue as she bent to pick up the harness and towels, and it was only the briefest second that her whole pussy was exposed to the—

“Huaisang,” Mingjue half-groaned, half-laughed.

“Just getting the stuff! And if someone was lucky enough to be looking, well, I made their day, didn’t I?”

“Yes, they’re very lucky. Come here.” Mingjue was unbuckling her belt and shucking her pants with a utilitarian swiftness that dried out Huaisang’s mouth as she wobbled back to the couch.

Watching Mingjue step into the harness over her grey boxers, fit the dildo through the ring, and tighten the straps at her hips, all with sharp, efficient movements, was rapidly removing Huaisang’s ability to think, or breathe. She collapsed into a controlled melt on the couch, one hand on her forehead as if to hold off an honest-to-god swoon, and the other making its unconscious way to her cunt, rubbing in distracted circles.

Mingjue tightened the last strap and turned to face her, still wearing her shirt and blazer, black dildo jutting out underneath. Her eyes immediately dropped to Huaisang’s hand, and Huaisang let her legs fall wider, patting herself in showy circles, moving slickness around her folds and spreading them apart. Mingjue’s eyes were very dark in the growing dusk and the faint light from the hallway, and something sharp and electric shivered from the base of Huaisang’s spine to the arch of her pubic bone.

“Huaisang,” Mingjue’s voice was lower than she’d ever heard it, and she moved to stand over Huaisang, tall and broad and solid, one hand reaching out as if unsure where to land.

“Da-jie,” Huaisang sounded like she’d been in the desert for thirty years, “if you don’t fuck me right now, right now, jesus christ—”

“Do you need fingers?”

“No, I need your dick, I’ve never been wetter in my fucking life, please—”

“Okay, okay, I have you.” Mingjue finally touched her, a long caress down her sternum and the roll of her belly. Huaisang shivered again, clenching around nothing, and considered the dildo, the height of the couch, and the length of Mingjue’s legs.

“Alright—where did those towels—thanks—okay, okay, like this, is this okay, can you reach?”

Huaisang looked back over her shoulder where she had arranged herself on all fours with her ass in the air, cheek pillowed on the back of the couch.

Mingjue swallowed visibly and pulled Huaisang’s asscheeks apart with her thumbs, and Huaisang shuddered as she felt wetness slide down to soak into her pubic hair. Mingjue took one hand away to stroke her cock from base to tip, and Huaisang let out a noise of agony and turned her head back, squeezing her eyes shut.

A cool weight rested on her overheated pussy, not yet pressing in, and she felt Mingjue leaning over her.

“Vibration?”

“Yeah,” Huaisang croaked, and immediately moaned as a low wet buzzing filled the air. “Put it in, put it in, fuck, put it in—”

Mingjue leaned in with her full weight and sheathed the dildo inside her with one stroke, and Huaisang screamed into the leather, her spine arching and her hips jerking. Mingjue lurched forward to grab her sides in alarm.

“Huaisang—did you—”

“Keep going, don’t stop, don’t stop, mmm—”

After a stunned moment of immobility, Mingjue adjusted her grip on Huaisang’s hips and fucked her roughly through the first orgasm and straight into the second, which was a deeper diffuse throbbing that spread through her lower body and left her gasping open-mouthed against the couch, unable to draw air.

Huaisang was vaguely aware she was making noise, and that noise was loud, but beyond that she had no comprehension. Mingjue was fucking her with the strength of thighs that could deadlift double Huaisang’s weight, and Huaisang was so wet and open there was almost no resistance.

The hard muscle of Mingjue’s thighs met her ass with sharp wet slaps as she continued to pick up, and Huaisang’s whole body jerked with each thrust. She had to twist her head to the side to avoid suffocating, and she knew the sounds she was making were absolutely animal, but they seemed to correlate with Mingue fucking her harder, so she let them out unfiltered.

She must have drifted for a minute, or ten, because her third orgasm took her by surprise, stuffed full with Mingjue’s hands holding her further apart, so deep inside her that she could feel the head buzzing against the mouth of her cervix. Huaisang shoved her hips back with a long moan, and heard wetness splattering the leather harness at the impact. Her cunt clenched again and again around the dildo, squeezing and fluttering as she shook and shook, until eventually she gasped, “Turn it off,” and sobbed again as Mingjue fumbled for the button at the base.

Even with the vibration off, Huaisang still felt like her entire pussy was carrying a live current, swollen and twitching and jumping. She was wet down to her knees, and could feel it pooling on the towel.

Mingjue’s large warm hand caressed the small of her back in smooth strokes, and she leaned forward to kiss the back of her neck, so softly, in perfect counterbalance to how rigorously Huaisang had just been fucked into the couch.

“I’m going to pull out,” Mingjue said into her ear, and Huaisang flapped a limp hand in acquiescence.

Mingjue withdrew slowly, massaging Huaisang’s hip as she went, but Huaisang still whimpered when it slipped free, and without Mingjue holding her up, her knees slipped and her stomach landed directly in the puddle on the towel. She could not bring herself to care even a little. Behind her were the soft sounds of Mingjue unbuckling and removing the harness, and then Huaisang was being lifted with the gentlest care, the towels were removed, and Huaisang was resettled on her back with her head in Mingjue’s lap.

“I think my vagina has a heartbeat,” Huaisang slurred with her eyes closed, “I think my actual heart stopped and travelled down to my vagina and now it’s there instead.”

Mingjue moved Huaisang’s sweaty hair away from her forehead and cheeks. “I’m glad it was good.”

“Always… good. The best of good.” After several failed attempts, Huaisang turned her neck with enormous effort and wedged her nose into Mingjue’s boxers, which were gratifyingly damp and musky. “Now m’gonna suck you off.”

“You don’t need a rest?”

Huaisang creaked one eye open to glare up (and up). “I need—”

“To suck me off, yes, of course.” Her eyes were so warm, and her smile so soft. Huaisang felt a familiar spike in her chest and closed her eyes again, opening her mouth to give a soft bite to the swell of Mingjue’s mound through the cotton.

“Huaisang!”

“Take ’em off! Gimme!”

Huaisang was treated to the gift of Mingjue’s huffing laugh as she was propped up briefly so Mingjue could discard her boxers and turn to pull both legs onto the couch, laying Huaisang back down between them.

“Do you need me to turn you over as well?”

“Shhh, rude.” Huaisang struggled onto her elbows and swivelled her hips until she could flip onto her stomach, and was rewarded with the best view in the fucking world: Mingjue drawing up her knees and planting her feet beside her hips, so that her gorgeous cunt was directly in front of Huaisang’s face.

“Yes,” Huaisang sighed, and dropped her head to—there was no other word for it—nuzzle into the space between her legs.

Mingjue made a short noise above her, and Huaisang rubbed her face from side to side, without a thought to technique, just enjoying the sensation. Mingjue’s hair was thicker and more wiry than hers, and her cunt was—neater, Huaisang supposed you could term it, compared to the fat generous folds of her own. Huaisang loved it, and loved digging her face in to lick it open, and being surrounded by wet hair tickling her eyes and temples and cheeks.

She did so now, letting out a long groan at how good Mingjue tasted, her usual sharp scent mingled with sweat, and the added mustiness of travelling, and Huaisang was so glad Mingjue had stopped trying to shower before Huaisang ate her out. It had taken a few times before Mingjue had connected the feral way Huaisang zeroed in on her crotch after a workout with her adamant insistence that Mingjue truly did not need to do anything before Huaisang put her mouth on her, and in fact she preferred maximum hours between Mingjue’s latest shower and Huaisang making out with her cunt.

Huaisang settled into slow long licks, wriggling her hands out from under herself to hold Mingjue open for her mouth. She felt Mingjue’s pelvis rise and fall as Mingjue took a deep, shaky breath.

After a minute of listening to Mingjue trying to keep her breath steady, and the gorgeous noise of wet lips sliding against wet pussy, Huaisang paused at her entrance to gather slick onto her tongue with gentle swirls, then dragged it up to her clit. She did this over and over, licking Mingjue’s clit into a hot hard nub, pushing against it with her tongue and letting the wetness slide around it and down, only to gather it back up and continue to kiss her way open-mouthed along Mingjue’s cunt.

Mingjue’s thighs were trembling on either side of her head, clenching and releasing, and Huaisang wished she would clamp them shut, longed to feel the solid steel of her sister’s muscles holding her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. She realised absently that she was humping the couch, and spared a moment of regret that they hadn’t thought to keep a towel on it.

Mingue was letting out short cut-off grunts, and her hips were rocking in small abortive motions, which Huaisang took as her cue to fit her lips around her clit and suck.

The angle changed slightly, and Huaisang opened her eyes to confirm that Mingjue had gripped both her knees to pull them tighter to her chest, which was—holy shit—her shirt was unbuttoned, and her sports bra hiked up, and she’d clearly been groping herself while Huaisang was busy, and that was so hot Huaisang nearly went cross-eyed. She stared at Mingjue’s heavy breasts shuddering in the dim light, hard dark nipples pointed down at her, and—

“Huaisang,”

—shit, yes, she was in the middle of something. Huaisang resumed sucking with a moan, and Mingjue responded with a gasp at the added vibration. It took another thirty seconds, then Mingjue’s thighs and ass and abdomen tensed, and she came with a long shivering groan against Huaisang’s face. Huaisang sucked her through it, gentler, slowing to small licks as aftershocks trembled through Mingjue’s body.

Mingjue’s hand came to rest on Huaisang’s head, and she stopped, looking up at her sister’s flushed face and messy hair and mouth turned up at the corners.

“You’re incredible, Huaisang.”

Huaisang huffed against her thigh. “Can’t believe I missed you touching your tits, how could you deprive me like this—”

Mingjue’s quiet laugh was her favourite sound in all the world, better even than the sound of really good pussy.

“You looked very focused, and I didn’t want to interrupt. You know I love watching you focus. Being the object of it is… very nice.”

“You’re very nice.” Huaisang struggled upright and Mingjue arranged herself so that Huaisang could crawl into her lap. “You’re so good. I love having you home.” Huaisang mashed her face into Mingjue’s neck. “Don’t tell me when your next trip is because I don’t want to think about it yet.”

“Okay,” Mingjue said, and settled her big arms around her.

They needed to clean up, and Mingjue was probably itching to shower, and Huaisang’s pussy was throbbing in that persistent sort of way which meant she was still horny enough for a few more orgasms, and they should probably also talk a bit more, but in the moment Huaisang let herself drift. She ran her hands over her sister’s solid muscles and soft fat, the reassuring warmth and bigness of her, that solid presence which simultaneously lessened and heightened the pulling of her heart.

Huaisang turned her face up to be kissed, and found Mingjue already there to meet her.

 

***

 

Jiang Cheng ripped off his tie for the third time with a scowl.

“Augh,” he said, and threw it across the room. It caught and dangled off his lamp just as Wei Wuxian opened the door.

“Are you jerking off in he—oh, wow,” Wei Wuxian gave him an exaggerated up-down, and Jiang Cheng had already been sweaty before he walked in. “Slinky.”

“Slinky,” Jiang Cheng repeated, trying for deadpan.

“New shirt, very slinky.” Wei Wuxian swiped the tie as he passed the lamp.

“Isn’t this a bit cliché?” He stepped in close, reaching up to thread the tie through Jiang Cheng’s collar. “You, the flustered young man, struggling to tie a proper knot; me, the experienced mentor, lending a hand, then lending a different kind of hand—”

“You’re the only one thinking like that! Did I ask for your help! I know how to tie a tie!”

“And that’s why your lamp was wearing it?”

“Fuck off.”

Wei Wuxian jammed the knot under his Adam’s apple, and he gurgled. “Wei Wuxian—”

“You’re nervous about tonight?” Wei Wuxian kept his eyes on the collar he was straightening, and his face perfectly neutral.

“No,” Jiang Cheng batted his brother’s hands away and tugged the knot a degree looser from strangulation. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” said Wei Wuxian, and stuck his hands into his pockets.

“Oh,” said Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian was still standing very close, and Jiang Cheng cleared his throat. “Well, I guess. Me too, actually, a bit.”

Wei Wuxian hummed. “I suspected, when you started getting ready three hours early.”

“I really hate you.”

One of Wei Wuxian’s socks had a hole in the big toe, and he was worrying it against the side of his other foot. Jiang Cheng sifted their conversation back through his brain.

“I just, like, hate these things. Of course I gotta go, at least to give a-jie face, you know? But you’ve always been better at this stuff than me. Or you were, before…”

“Before,” Wei Wuxian agreed.

“Yeah, so. I’m always uncomfortable at these events, they’re so—” Jiang Cheng waved a hand to illustrate the word he couldn’t find. “You know. I’m bad at talking and shit. I didn’t really wanna go without you. Being around all of them, for hours and hours, can be—”

“They’re your people,” Wei Wuxian was staring into his eyes, and it was his level tone, more than anything, that made Jiang Cheng bunch his hands into fists.

“You’re my people,” he snapped, “you stupid fuck, and you know that. If anyone says you aren’t, I’ll hit them. With my fists.”

Jiang Cheng’s anger left him in a thin whistle when Wei Wuxian brought one of those fists to his mouth, and pressed his lips to a knuckle.

“So gallant,” Wei Wuxian’s lips curved against his fingers. His eyes were warm again. “Sweet A-Cheng, getting all fluffed up to defend me—”

Jiang Cheng swung his other fist up, and Wei Wuxian caught it, and closed the few inches between them to kiss him on the mouth, unexpectedly soft.

They stayed like that for a few minutes. Wei Wuxian seemed content to do nothing more than press their lips together, gently, again and again. It felt more intimate, somehow, than the messy bite-sucking Wei Wuxian usually employed, and it made Jiang Cheng feel hot in his lungs. He didn’t remember putting his hands in Wei Wuxian’s ponytail, but he must have, because his fingers were shaking as they tangled in the thick strands.

At one point Wei Wuxian’s hands slipped from his waist to give his ass a considering squeeze, and Jiang Cheng’s knees buckled embarrassingly. Wei Wuxian dropped his head to rest his chin over Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.

“There’s ages before we need to go,” Wei Wuxian’s hair tickled the side of his neck, “can I have some time with your ass before you button it up?”

“No,” said Jiang Cheng, but he arched his spine to push his hips back when his brother’s grip tightened, and offered no resistance when Wei Wuxian used that grip to pull him in.

“Shame,” Wei Wuxian was becoming liquid in that way he did whenever they started moving towards sex, hands and mouth seemingly everywhere at once. “You started crying when I put my tongue in last time, and you said it was because I was so bad at it, how will I ever improve if you don’t give me the mmf—”

Jiang Cheng let Wei Wuxian lick his palm while he undid his belt one-handed, because that grossness was preferable to listening to him talk.

 

***

 

Huaisang admired her reflection in one of the ornate mirrors lining the sides of the hall, balancing on one tall stiletto and looking back over her shoulder. Her dress was heavy dark green shot through with gold and grey, and if she arranged the fall of her hair to cover the strip of material at her neck, it looked almost like she was wearing nothing but a skirt. The fat of her back dimpled prettily above the band at her waist, and she turned to appreciate how much sideboob was visible behind the thin triangles straining up to her neck.

“Salacious,” A hand appeared around her waist and Wei Wuxian winked at her in the mirror.

“Isn’t it nice?” She leaned up to leave a round circle of lipstick on his jaw.

“It’s very nice. I think you might be giving your sister a stroke.”

She looked over his shoulder to where her da-jie was in conversation with one of the endless Jin cousins across the room. Her face was thunder. When Mingjue met Huaisang’s gaze her jaw tightened further, and her eyes flashed, and the Jin cousin made his squeaking apologies and fled.

Huaisang made a show of adjusting the flimsy strips at the front of her dress, for the pleasure of watching Mingjue’s nose flush red before she turned away.

“Wow,” said Wei Wuxian, “you’re awful. Are you even wearing boob tape?”

“Boob tape is for cowards,” Huaisang said. “And you’re later than I expected, I was worried you’d decided not to come after all that.”

“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian tucked her hand into his elbow and they started walking. “Well. We got distracted, and then Jiang Cheng got jizz on his new shirt even though I told him to take it off, then he had to yell at me, and then we had more sex because his clothes were ruined anyway, and by the time we managed to leave—”

“I thought he looked a little rumpled,” Huaisang peered through a group at the open bar. “He’s usually so particular about ironing.”

“Yes,” said Wei Wuxian fondly. “He’s a tool.”

Huaisang looked up at his profile. “You two have seemed a bit better lately?”

“Is that a question?”

“It’s an observation, but I wanna hear if you think it’s going better.”

They came to a stop at the end of the bar, near a group of Lan teenagers who were trying and failing to get served. Wei Wuxian disentangled from her elbow and plucked at his cuffs.

“Yes. I think—I think we are. He’s still goddamn infuriating, but it’s in such an earnest way I can’t help—”

“—blowing his back out?”

“Exactly.” Wei Wuxian winked. “It does wonders for mellowing him. And all of his anger and snarling—you were right, as you know you always are so you don’t need to pretend modesty—it’s mostly at himself, which I already knew, but I thought it was equal measure directed at me, and it’s… not. It’s a cover for how fucking sad he is, and I’d have known that if I weren’t, you know, so fucking sad myself.”

Huaisang took his arm again and laid her head on his shoulder. He looked down at her, and didn’t look sad at all. She leaned up to kiss the corner of his mouth.

“Thanks,” he said.

“He’s loved you for a long time.”

“Yeah,” said Wei Wuxian, quietly marvelling. “It’s wild.”

“It’s obvious, you loser. But I’m glad he’s finally saying it.” She assessed his eyebrows. “Or not saying it.”

“I understand him,” Wei Wuxian leaned them against the bar. “He says it with his dick, and I’m fluent.”

“Genuinely so happy for you,” Huaisang said, disentangling. “Now I’m gonna go fuck with da-jie some more, and you should rescue your brother.”

Wei Wuxian blew her a kiss and slinked off, and she turned in search of Mingjue. Her sister was standing by the buffet table, radiating such intensity that no one was touching the canapes within two metres of her. Huaisang tottered across the dance floor, drawing approving and disapproving looks, and flicked out her fan to bat her eyelashes at the most obvious gawkers.

By the time she reached Mingjue, her expression had reached a level of strained fatalism that was genuinely impressive, but there was also the tiniest twitch to the stern line of her mouth, and when Huaisang bounced to a stop in front of her she definitely, absolutely, caught Mingjue’s eyes flicking down.

“My tits look really good tonight, do you like them?” Huaisang leaned against the table and pressed her upper arms together to push her boobs out. Her dress was still, technically, covering her nipples. Mingjue made a noise like she’d dropped something heavy on her foot.

Huaisang reached up to finger the strap at her neck. “Are you thinking about how easy it would be to pull this aside and—”

“Let’s dance,” Mingjue pushed off the table and grabbed Huaisang’s wrist to drag her behind. One of Huaisang’s boobs really did fall out at the sudden movement, and she swept it back in while winking at Lan Wangji, who became very focused on his glass of water.

On the dance floor, Mingjue’s calloused palms spanned the soft skin of her back. Huaisang laid her hands on Mingjue’s biceps, giving appreciative squeezes whenever she thought she could get away with it, which was about every eight seconds.

“Where did you go, before?”

“Bathroom. I couldn’t wait.”

“Huaisang.” Mingjue’s arms tightened, and Huaisang let out a pleased oof as her breasts were squashed flat against the crisp linen of Mingjue’s dress shirt.

“I was quiet,” she whispered reassuringly. “Really quiet. No one noticed, I promised. You just look so hot, da-jie, don’t be angry with me.”

All Huaisang could see from this angle was the side of Mingjue’s neck and one reddening ear. She wriggled a little, to feel Mingjue’s ribs expand with a truncated breath when Huaisang's hardening nipples rubbed against her shirt. Wei Wuxian was right, she was awful.

“You wouldn’t want them to see me wet, would you? It was going down my leg, da-jie, if I’d waited any longer someone would have seen. I forgot to put on underwear—”

Mingjue gripped her shoulders to pull her back, and frowned.

“You’re—”

“No, I am,” Huaisang relented. “I’m kidding, I’m wearing underwear, sorry.” She poked the tip of her tongue out and Mingjue frowned harder, but it was undercut with a longsuffering sigh. Huaisang saw her eyes travel down to her chest, and didn’t need to check to know her nipples were now making very obvious dents in the flimsy triangles.

“You definitely can’t be mad at me for that, da-jie, that’s all you. Smush me against your gorgeous boobs at your own peril.” She smoothed down her waistband and pushed her chest out, and Mingjue glanced around them with an expression of beleaguered agony.

“You’re turning a lot of heads,” said Mingjue eventually, releasing her grip on Huaisang’s shoulders to brush down to her elbows and cup those instead.

“Yeah,” said Huaisang, watching Mingjue’s face. “I’m the hottest person here, their heads better be turning.”

Mingjue looked at her, and there was a lot going on in her expression. Not, perhaps, to anyone else, but to Huaisang, there was a wealth of information. And none of it—she fought to beat down the ever-persistent tendril of uncertainty—was disgust, or rejection.

“I like them looking at me,” Huaisang said. “You’re definitely—I know we talked about it, but. You’re really okay that I like people thinking about fucking me when they can’t?”

They’d moved closer again for privacy, though they weren’t attracting strange looks, because everyone was long used to how clingy Huaisang was with her taciturn older sister. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the way they were curved into each other. But Huaisang liked very much that if there were people watching who were unaware of their relationship, they looked exactly like a couple exchanging soft intimate words on the dance floor. Which, Huaisang thought with a smile that made her cheeks hurt, unbelievably, incredibly, magically, they were.

“They can’t,” Mingjue’s voice was low, and it was neither confirmation nor a question.

“Only you,” Huaisang said, and looped her wrists around her da-jie’s neck, and let emotion bleed into all the corners of her voice. “It’s always been only you.”

Mingjue’s eyes flicked again to the side, and this time Huaisang didn’t think it was to check for eavesdroppers.

“Oh, da-jie, you’re—oh no, you can’t be shy, I’ll faint right here, this is—I can’t believe this, you’ve said the same to me—worse!—with a totally straight face—oh, da-jie, is it because we’re in public?”

“Please stop,” Mingjue’s face was red in a band across her nose and cheeks, and Huaisang needed to be awarded a medal in restraint for not leaning up to kiss her senseless in front of two hundred people.

“We have to leave,” Huaisang ran her thumbs under Mingjue’s collar to feel her warm skin and the pulse underneath. “Shut up, no, you can’t expect me to shuffle around this stuffy room for the next few hours, I need you—”

“Shhh,” Mingjue turned her sharply away from some Lan teenagers who were getting too close, “Shhh. You’re always too loud.”

Huaisang grumbled, and teetered dramatically on her heels so Mingjue would have to pull her close to steady her. Mingjue narrowed her eyes to say I know exactly what you’re doing, but let Huaisang have her way. Huaisang laid her cheek against Mingjue’s bicep and closed her eyes to enjoy the solid arms around her back, and the hot palm on her spine below the strap of her dress. She made a small happy sound, and felt the gentle answering swipe of a thumb against the nape of her neck.

Huaisang swayed with her eyes closed, content to let Mingjue steer them. She opened them again at a loud laugh from the other side of the dance floor. Jin Guangyao was talking to someone Huaisang couldn’t recognise from the back, his smile especially pained. Huaisang let her gaze travel around the room, and it fell on Jiang Cheng leaning against a wall with his habitual scowl fixed in place. As she watched, Wei Wuxian wandered over with a beer, dangling it until Jiang Cheng swiped it. They had an exchange Huaisang was too far away to hear, and Wei Wuxian leaned a hip against the wall next to him.

They lapsed into silence as Jiang Cheng took a long swallow from his beer. Wei Wuxian’s hand slipped into his, so casually it looked like an accident. Jiang Cheng’s face burned an immediate red. He interlaced their fingers.

Huaisang grinned into Mingjue’s arm as she turned them again.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Wei Wuxian at one of these,” Mingjue observed, when the boys came into her line of sight. “There’s less of a fuss than I would have expected.”

Huaisang made a noncommittal noise.

Mingjue shifted above her, and Huaisang felt her gaze on the top of her head. “You know it’s more suspicious when you do that.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“I’d say don’t get yourself into trouble,” Mingjue said slowly, “but I think… I know, that anything I could say is something you’ve already thought of. Compared to you, everyone here…” She trailed off, and Huaisang watched the patterns on the polished floor under their feet.

“Worlds apart.” The words were said so gently Huaisang almost didn’t catch them, and enough time had passed that it could have been the end of the previous sentence, or the start of a different thought. What Huaisang heard, in those words, couldn’t be unraveled and examined just then, because her makeup was expensive.

“Did I tell you Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are dating now?” she said instead, her voice only cracking a little.

“Oh, that’s nice. Is that why he’s here tonight?”

“Kind of? I think? Jiang Cheng would have wanted to bring him anyway even if they weren’t, but since they said how they really felt they’ve gotten a tiny bit better at, like, talking about what they want. Before that it was all, aaahhh I hate you, and I guess you hate me because you’re always leaving, and I’m just holding you back, Jiang Cheng, you should be free, and raargh, stop telling me what I want, I hate you, they’ve been killing me for years, da-jie, you’ve never met a bigger pair of idiots, it’s been the worst kind of torture—”

Mingjue was shaking with laughter, the kind that only came out in wheezes, as Huaisang sagged dramatically in her arms.

“I’m glad,” Mingjue said, helping Huaisang right herself. “Now that I’m looking, Jiang Cheng does seem happier than I’ve seen him, maybe since he was born.”

“They’re good for each other,” Huaisang said. “Ultimately. Very bad for each other, in less important ways, but they were always going to be a bit messy. Things being what they are.”

“Mm. Things being what they are.” Mingjue resettled her hands around the curve of Huaisang’s waist. “Can’t have been easy for them,” she said, after a moment.

“No,” said Huaisang. They rotated gently on the spot. “It wasn’t for us, either.”

“I didn’t make it easy for you,” Mingjue’s quiet voice was drawing inward, and Huaisang blinked against her mascara.

“It was worth it,” she said in a voice that didn’t wobble, “It was really worth all of it. I never—I never thought—”

Mingjue produced a handkerchief, the elaborate monogrammed multicolored one Huaisang had made for her as a joke several years previously, which had backfired when Mingjue proudly displayed it in her breast pocket every time they went out.

Mingjue held the handkerchief under her lashline and Huaisang glared balefully up at her.

“For making me cry in public,” she said, “you’re not allowed to dance with anyone else tonight.”

Mingjue bowed her head with fake solemnity. “I promise.”

“Good, because Lan Xichen’s making his way over, and he looks like he wants to cut in.”

Mingjue raised an eyebrow.

“Oh my god, he’s been sweet on you for eight whole years, I actually refuse to believe you’ve never noticed.”

“Eight years? You’ve been counting?”

“Of course,” Huaisang sniffed. “I keep track of everyone who’s in love with you.”

“I really don’t think there’s as many as you think,” Mingjue’s teeth were glinting under her moustache, “I hate to say it, Huaisang, but your judgement may be clouded—”

“My judgement is impeccable." Huaisang put her nose in the air against Mingjue’s small laugh. There was a gentle throat clearing behind them, and Huaisang poked her tongue out, smugly, before slipping her arms from Mingjue’s neck, and they turned as one.

 

***

Notes:

the missing scenes were the discussion of how exactly huaisang could be fucked in front of the window, and then the resulting fucking, which was originally the whole point of this sequel, but here we are anyway. a fic shaped around a window-fucking hole. cheers m’dears <3

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of make a scene