meme_ warmth, a flame
this is... not nano. xD; though i have started it. (god, but have apparently forgotten how to just let it rip. D8 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VERBAL DIARRHEA? APPALLING.) started this meme a while ago; decided to sit down and make it presentable.
Pick a pairing.
- Set your playlist to random/shuffle
- Write a drabble for the first 10 songs
- Only write for as long as the song plays!
i quite clearly did not stick to the song lengths, because at least one (orochi taiko) only lasted 50 seconds and like... no. xD; in any case, i've been meaning to write this pairing (boyue/boyan ♥) for a while now and have finally figured out how to make it kinda work. :D
title: warmth, a flame
verse: dynasty warriors
facts: jiang wei (dynasty 5→strikeforce), lu xun (dynasty 5→dynasty 6); 3200w; PG-15 for non-explicit porn. ._. *blames vanilla*
notes: for those not familiar with the warriors 'verse, jiang wei is strategist zhuge liang's protégé (and is in the games all, "prime minister! :0 ♥" to a ridiculous degree). lu xun is lü meng's successor. but this is a retarded high school AU so none of that really applies, lol. written in three sittings and different states of mind, um. 8D please ignore that.
___
[ 01 ][ TEGOMASS - HANAMUKE ]
The debate was over. Shu High had lost, but to worthy opponents. Wu College had spoken well. Jiang Wei reached back to tighten his ponytail and took a deep breath. Best not to make enemies out of guys like that, thought his quieter mind. Without further ado, he crossed the floor.
"Excuse me-"
Lu Xun turned at the voice and saw the first speaker of the opposing team. Putting on a cordial smile, he looked up at the brown-haired third year. (High school wasn't fair, he had to look up at almost everyone.) "Jiang Wei, wasn't it?"
Jiang Wei-as clearly he was-nodded, smiling almost reservedly back. But then again, Lu Xun had already figured him to be the reserved type. He'd been a passionate speaker, but other than that had stayed very quiet during the rest of the debate. But he spoke now: "Please call me Boyue."
"Then, Boyan," Lu Xun said. They shook hands.
Jiang Wei's smile became a little more at ease. "I'll admit I was surprised at first, Boyan, but now I understand why Wu College allowed a second year to be third speaker. You have rare talent."
"I think compared to Shu High's team last year, you still have a fair way to go," Lu Xun returned, laughing when Jiang Wei's ears turned red.
"That's is not-"
"It is unfair though," Lu Xun said, his own smile softening somewhat, "to compare anyone to State Champion Zhuge Liang."
[ 02 ][ NANASE AIKAWA - SEVEN SEAS ]
Jiang Wei sat very carefully holding an empty mocktail glass and tried hard not to listen to the too-often heinously improper banter bouncing around him.
He felt extremely out of place, not even relieved when a familiar figure appeared by his side with a shiny little glass of something fizzy and vaguely orange. Blood orange.
"You don't look too well," Lu Xun said, seating himself beside Jiang Wei at the handrail, but facing out to the waves instead. He dangled his feet over the edge of the boat and Jiang Wei imagined he could probably feel the spray peppering his bare toes. "Seasick?"
The boys of Wu College seemed to like the water; Shu High not so much. Jiang Wei didn't sigh, shaking his head. "Why are we here again?" he asked (in reality meaning Why am I…?).
The boat was going fairly fast for its size (decent enough that Jiang Wei felt like the only [very small] island of sanity on board). He remembered having occasionally seen a number of the raucous university students around, from when Zhuge Liang had brought him to the campus library for tuition.
The students in question hadn't been in the library though, of course. Off the top of his head, Jiang Wei recognized Sun Ce and Taishi Ci from the courts of the interstate basketball team; Gan Ning cleaning the leaves out of a high gutter whilst on yard duty, and Ling Tong… well. Jiang Wei actually wasn't sure where he'd seen Ling Tong before, but a face like that was hard to forget.
Zhou Yu had been in the library, but he looked a lot handsomer out in the light. Or perhaps it was because Zhuge Liang wasn't currently here and so Zhou Yu's smile appeared a lot brighter and less tense than Jiang Wei usually saw it…
"You said your tutor was on a study sabbatical and did not wish to be disturbed," Lu Xun said, bringing Jiang Wei back to the present.
"Ah. Right…"
Lu Xun smiled. "And so I offered to put you out of your misery." He raised his glass in a toast that Jiang Wei absently returned. "This way, you can just wish you were home, right? Whereas if you were at home, you'd be wishing you were at the Zhuge family holiday house instead."
"I seem to be somewhat discontent either way," Jiang Wei observed, trying to keep his voice neutral to Lu Xun's ears. But it wasn't hard with the noise of the water against the boat's hull, the boat's motor, and also the music blaring.
"This way you don't feel guilty though, do you?" Lu Xun laughed. "Just uncomfortable. It's a rock versus a hard place, I'll give, but I'm of the opinion that constant guilt is among the worst of emotions to be afflicted with."
Mortification isn't far behind, Jiang Wei thought. But said nothing until Lu Xun leaned back from the bar and into the path of one of the older-looking students aboard.
"Lü Meng, sir~" Lu Xun said with a smile that was overly affectionate and borderline tipsy. "Could you take this if you're going to the bar? And Boyue's, too." He plucked Jiang Wei's empty glass from his hands before any protest could be lodged.
Jiang Wei's mouth clicked shut as Lü Meng chuckled. "Just for you, Lu Xun. But don't come to expect this treatment."
"Not all the time anyway," Lu Xun grinned, making Lü Meng laugh again as he walked away.
Jiang Wei felt scandalized. "Wasn't he your senior on the debating team?" he hissed.
Lu Xun tilted his head. "The supervising student teacher, actually."
"That's even worse," Jiang Wei said, appalled. He could hardly imagine such familiarity-superiority almost-toward Zhuge Liang or anyone in a position of authority like that.
Lu Xun shrugged, an amused light behind his smile. "It's okay. We help each other out."
"…really," Jiang Wei said and leaned his head down in his hands. Maybe it was seasickness after all, but guilt or no guilt, he felt that he most certainly would have preferred to be home alone instead of on this crazy boat in the middle of the bay.
[ 03 ][ BRAVE STORY / AQUA TIMEZ - KETSUI NO ASA NI ]
They were docked, but still with no sign of leaving long after the late spring sunset. (Of course not: "PARTY 'TIL DAWN!" Sun Ce had hollered, and not many could really argue with resolve like that.)
Lü Meng had taken the car to get more ice or drinks or something, Zhou Yu with him. Zhou Tai had taken Sun Quan home.
Lu Xun sat curled upon the beach, still looking out at those waves despite the way he hugged his legs to his chest. His toes dug into the warm sand.
"Cold?" Jiang Wei guessed.
"A little," Lu Xun admitted.
"That's logical, I suppose," Jiang Wei said, coming to sit by his side, "since you're kind of small."
Lu Xun gave him a glare, briefly indignant. "I am not." But the token protest was not too prideful to decline an offer of warmth. Lu Xun curled into Jiang Wei's side of his own accord, space enough under Jiang Wei's arm in his large green overcoat. Despite the trace alcohol on Lu Xun's breath, it was clear he was sobering.
Jiang Wei shook his head. "Okay." He supposed there were plenty of people shorter than 5'7. At Shu High and Wu College such people were mostly girls and unfortunate first years, but the point still stood. Lu Xun was lithe and his form graceful-a build like Zhang Fei's would hardly have pulled off the default formal sharpness in Lu Xun's smile. Jiang Wei said, "You're a nice size."
The comment earned him a strange look but Lu Xun turned away again with nothing said, and in return Jiang Wei left his arm where it was and let the warmth between them remain.
[ 04 ][ FULL METAL PANIC - KARENAI HANA ]
Sunburn, Jiang Wei discovered, was good for very little but perhaps hiding a blush.
"I heard you got up to some mischief over the weekend," Pang Tong said, his rolling tones full of amusement.
"It was not mischief," Jiang Wei maintained.
"But anything Wu's invariably mischief," Pang Tong said, smiling beneath his ever-present face mask. ("Life, my dear Boyue, is an allergen.") His eyes crinkled up at the corners. "So~ why don't you tell me about it…?"
"Nothing happened," Jiang Wei said, feeling his face on fire.
Pang Tong laughed. "My sources beg to differ~"
"…sources?" Inwardly, Jiang Wei sighed. But of course Pang Tong would have 'sources' even within a rival school and even on a weekend.
"Lu Su," Pang Tong explained happily. "He and I are good friends, though doubtless you hardly noticed his presence at the party."
Indeed, though Lu Xun had introduced everyone over the course of the day, Jiang Wei was hard-pressed to recall Lu Su's face. "…you are correct. I apologise."
"Not at all," Pang Tong chuckled. "Bit of a wallflower, that one, but he suits my uses nicely. So…?"
Already accustomed to Pang Tong's typical manner, Jiang Wei paid Lu Su's belittlement no mind. "Boyan was cold," was all he said. Not even Lu Su could have noticed Lu Xun's fingers curled into Jiang Wei's own under his green jacket as the two of them dozed. And not even Pang Tong should have been able to see the current flush Jiang Wei definitely felt on his face through the burn across his nose.
Yet even as Pang Tong chuckled, "I see~ I see," and let the matter go, Jiang Wei was left with no doubt that he had indeed just been completely transparent.
[ 05 ][ HAKUOUKI / YOSHIOKA AIKA - IZAYOI NAMIDA ]
Lu Xun kisses him later, just around the corner from the Wu College gates after school, apparently okay with passers-by. But as he grabs Jiang Wei's tie and yanks him down with a smile, his mouth as warm as the rest of him on a summer's day, Jiang Wei can't find it in himself to care.
"What even-" transpired here? or started this whole thing? Jiang Wei wants to ask later, much later, with just the two of them in Lu Xun's sharehouse room. (Jiang Wei has never heard the other's parents mentioned but wonders about it only briefly. His scans the walls without thought, noting the photos everywhere of friends, friends, acquaintances and schoolmates, and even sees himself in a few-though mostly in the background of Zhuge Liang's focus.)
Lu Xun laughs, playing with the ends of Jiang Wei's long hair-still up in a tight ponytail despite everything. "My debating team is counting on me. This is the best way to get to know an opponent apart from stalking him."
Jiang Wei blinks. "That isn't true."
"It is," Lu Xun tells him, smiling. "But isn't the reason, I'll give you that."
"It's not?" Jiang Wei says mildly. Not that he minds. "I wouldn't put it past you."
Lu Xun waves his concern away. "I'm not that shallow. Nor is our team weak enough to need it."
[ 06 ][ ABC - OROCHI TAIKO (live) ]
Still, it's possible Lu Xun is that shallow. The thought amuses Jiang Wei kind of quietly.
Lu Xun tans in the sun like he was born to soak up its rays. Jiang Wei can't help admiring his transformation over the summer, from the little braids that appear to the feather hairclips, the bangles around his wrists and the… little white marks he paints under one eye on festival days.
It's vaguely camp and definitely weird but Lu Xun pulls it off-to the extent that it makes Jiang Wei feel kind of like Lu Su beside Zhou Yu sometimes (or almost anybody beside upperclassman Ma Chao). A complete and utter wallflower.
Though this would hardly bother him under normal circumstances, if Lu Xun describes his hair as so 90's just one more time…
On a whim (almost), when his bangs grow out too long to keep, Jiang Wei decides to get a proper haircut. Something different.
The new style frames his face, all thinned and layered with a touch of lightening for texture, and bangs shorter than his eyes for the first time in a long time. It's a strange sight in the mirror afterward-fluffy flicks complementing his usual, dead-straight strands-strange and different, but not too bad.
If barely recognising oneself can count as 'not too bad'...
Mechanically, Jiang Wei dons his festival outfit once he gets home-a traditional hanfu that his mother made, in rich green darted through with silver-and ties his ponytail loose down by his nape. With one last self-conscious glance in the mirror and an unsure flick at the little bit of fringe that falls determinedly between his eyes, Jiang Wei decides that the ensemble could look worse and makes his way to Lu Xun's meeting spot with a quick message: Eta 5.
Heads turn when he walks. Though he's used to being on the tall side (and occasionally dressing up funny as well, because sometimes Shu High gets their clubs involved in strange things), this kind of attention is rather new.
For the first time in a long time he doesn't get an I already see you~ message back from Lu Xun either.
That in itself makes the self-consciousness worth it but tenfold, as they meet and Jiang Wei smiles in greeting, is the sudden and startling impression that for once Lu Xun has eyes for no one else.
[ 07 ][ ABC-Z - ASHITA NO TAME NI BOKU GA IRU (live) ]
"Wow," Lu Xun says, genuine surprise in his kohl-lined eyes as his fingers brush Jiang Wei's cheeks and bangs and flicks of hair. "Boyue, you actually look your age!"
Jiang Wei smiles, self-conscious all over again though for a different reason now, and shrugs away Lu Xun's almost childlike wonder. "It's just a haircut." He's pleased though, inwardly, that the change has proven positive. "If you're done admiring it, we can go."
Lu Xun laughs. "Let's go. I can multitask."
Through the stalls side by side, they walk with shoulders brushing. There are dumplings to try, and funny fishing games to play (though the cocky, white-haired boy beside them sweeps all the prizes without contest). It's a pleasant night until Zhuge Liang passes the end of the road with typically sedate majesty, his red-haired girlfriend on his arm, and Jiang Wei's gaze lingers a little too long and a little too wistful.
"Hey," Lu Xun says, prodding him with the end of a bamboo fishing rod. "Boyue."
"…sorry," Jiang Wei says, rubbing at eyes that are tired from the lanterns and lights and smoke and things.
Lu Xun only smiles. "Don't apologise or I'd have to do the same were Lü Meng present."
Jiang Wei shakes his head, picking between the lines: Don't think I'd be here if Lü Meng were interested in me either. "But he's not."
"He's not, and he won't be." Lu Xun shrugs, handing Jiang Wei the bamboo rod, apparently unfazed. And because they're not the kind to have secrets of the mind, he adds, "Nor will Zhuge Liang."
Jiang Wei says nothing to that, turning his attention back to the fishing game at hand. Still, a fond smile lifts his mouth beneath the silence. It was nice, he thinks, hearing Lu Xun's admission; knowing they are both on the same page. It's nice to feel it's okay.
[ 08 ][ GACKT - VANILLA (…lol) ]
Still, when it's just the two of them, Lu Xun with his arms pinned in a pool of red-orange hanfu and Jiang Wei's mouth against his neck and their warmth shared again-those times they are perhaps closer than they should be-it's never anyone else that Jiang Wei imagines when he closes his eyes and hides his face against Lu Xun's shoulder.
It could be no one else, after all, who turns to look at him with his own eyes dark and heavy and a smile that says as he says, "Look at me, Boyue," I want to see you lose control.
Jiang Wei obliges, raising his head through his embarrassment. Smiles a little. Because likewise it is only ever Jiang Wei's name a breath of laughter on Lu Xun's lips.
[ 09 ][ GUNDAM SEED: YZAK JULE - SHOOT ]
"You know, it's strange now with your haircut," Lu Xun says softly, watching.
More than half asleep, Jiang Wei makes a puzzled noise and squints over almost blearily. He's eloquent, really: "…what?"
Lu Xun twines the long bits of Jiang Wei's hair through his fingers, idle. "I'll admit I was attracted to you at first because you looked older than you were," he says. "But after getting to know you better… and now that you don't look, you know, thirty…"
"Thirty...?" Jiang Wei's brow furrows. "Should I not have cut it, then?"
Lu Xun shakes his head, his fingers brushing gently over Jiang Wei's bangs. "No, it looks good. I… like it."
It takes Jiang Wei's sleep-addled brain a moment longer than usual to put two and two together-to turn the line of Lu Xun's statement from I like it to I like you. His cheeks quickly flush when he does though, and he buries his face again against Lu Xun's pleased laughter.
[ 10 ][ MICHAEL PAYNTER / THE VERONICAS - LOVE THE FALL ]
"I hope you slept well, Boyue," Lu Xun said on the way to school, smiling.
"Of course," Jiang Wei answered. His voice crackled only faintly over the phone. "Wu College will be a tough enough opponent without my handicapping our side."
Lu Xun laughed into the wind as his bike crested a small hill and coasted easily down. "Flattery will get you nowhere."
"Fact, however, is a necessary base for any good attack."
"I look forward to seeing this 'good' attack of yours," Lu Xun told him, to which Jiang Wei's dry smile was almost audible.
"You think you know it."
"I do know it. You ran it by me two days ago trying to test my counterarguments."
"If you're naïve enough to believe I gave you our entire argument, Boyan…"
"I've got another think coming?" Lu Xun supposed. "Please, I know at least that much. But with what you did give me, filling the gaps was hardly difficult."
Jiang Wei held silent for a moment, Lu Xun amused quietly by his lack of a response until at last, "…you're bluffing," he said.
"Am I really?" Lu Xun smiled. "Ah, but what does it matter if I've already shaken your confidence…"
"You have not. I have perfectly good confidence in my skills," Jiang Wei said, his voice as even as ever-at least on the surface.
"You have perfect confidence in your physical skills, Boyue, as well you should. But your mental balance still needs some work. You're still aware you have very large shoes to fill, after all."
"That is not-" Jiang Wei cut himself off mid-argument. "Answering your call was a bad idea."
"It was," Lu Xun agreed, swinging his bike through the Wu College side gate with a grin. "You only just realised?"
"I'm going to hang up now."
Lu Xun laughed. "I've just reached school anyway. See you at the moot, Boyue, and after."
"I'll be at the library."
"Say hi to your tutor for me."
Pick a pairing.
- Set your playlist to random/shuffle
- Write a drabble for the first 10 songs
- Only write for as long as the song plays!
i quite clearly did not stick to the song lengths, because at least one (orochi taiko) only lasted 50 seconds and like... no. xD; in any case, i've been meaning to write this pairing (boyue/boyan ♥) for a while now and have finally figured out how to make it kinda work. :D
title: warmth, a flame
verse: dynasty warriors
facts: jiang wei (dynasty 5→strikeforce), lu xun (dynasty 5→dynasty 6); 3200w; PG-15 for non-explicit porn. ._. *blames vanilla*
notes: for those not familiar with the warriors 'verse, jiang wei is strategist zhuge liang's protégé (and is in the games all, "prime minister! :0 ♥" to a ridiculous degree). lu xun is lü meng's successor. but this is a retarded high school AU so none of that really applies, lol. written in three sittings and different states of mind, um. 8D please ignore that.
___
[ 01 ][ TEGOMASS - HANAMUKE ]
The debate was over. Shu High had lost, but to worthy opponents. Wu College had spoken well. Jiang Wei reached back to tighten his ponytail and took a deep breath. Best not to make enemies out of guys like that, thought his quieter mind. Without further ado, he crossed the floor.
"Excuse me-"
Lu Xun turned at the voice and saw the first speaker of the opposing team. Putting on a cordial smile, he looked up at the brown-haired third year. (High school wasn't fair, he had to look up at almost everyone.) "Jiang Wei, wasn't it?"
Jiang Wei-as clearly he was-nodded, smiling almost reservedly back. But then again, Lu Xun had already figured him to be the reserved type. He'd been a passionate speaker, but other than that had stayed very quiet during the rest of the debate. But he spoke now: "Please call me Boyue."
"Then, Boyan," Lu Xun said. They shook hands.
Jiang Wei's smile became a little more at ease. "I'll admit I was surprised at first, Boyan, but now I understand why Wu College allowed a second year to be third speaker. You have rare talent."
"I think compared to Shu High's team last year, you still have a fair way to go," Lu Xun returned, laughing when Jiang Wei's ears turned red.
"That's is not-"
"It is unfair though," Lu Xun said, his own smile softening somewhat, "to compare anyone to State Champion Zhuge Liang."
[ 02 ][ NANASE AIKAWA - SEVEN SEAS ]
Jiang Wei sat very carefully holding an empty mocktail glass and tried hard not to listen to the too-often heinously improper banter bouncing around him.
He felt extremely out of place, not even relieved when a familiar figure appeared by his side with a shiny little glass of something fizzy and vaguely orange. Blood orange.
"You don't look too well," Lu Xun said, seating himself beside Jiang Wei at the handrail, but facing out to the waves instead. He dangled his feet over the edge of the boat and Jiang Wei imagined he could probably feel the spray peppering his bare toes. "Seasick?"
The boys of Wu College seemed to like the water; Shu High not so much. Jiang Wei didn't sigh, shaking his head. "Why are we here again?" he asked (in reality meaning Why am I…?).
The boat was going fairly fast for its size (decent enough that Jiang Wei felt like the only [very small] island of sanity on board). He remembered having occasionally seen a number of the raucous university students around, from when Zhuge Liang had brought him to the campus library for tuition.
The students in question hadn't been in the library though, of course. Off the top of his head, Jiang Wei recognized Sun Ce and Taishi Ci from the courts of the interstate basketball team; Gan Ning cleaning the leaves out of a high gutter whilst on yard duty, and Ling Tong… well. Jiang Wei actually wasn't sure where he'd seen Ling Tong before, but a face like that was hard to forget.
Zhou Yu had been in the library, but he looked a lot handsomer out in the light. Or perhaps it was because Zhuge Liang wasn't currently here and so Zhou Yu's smile appeared a lot brighter and less tense than Jiang Wei usually saw it…
"You said your tutor was on a study sabbatical and did not wish to be disturbed," Lu Xun said, bringing Jiang Wei back to the present.
"Ah. Right…"
Lu Xun smiled. "And so I offered to put you out of your misery." He raised his glass in a toast that Jiang Wei absently returned. "This way, you can just wish you were home, right? Whereas if you were at home, you'd be wishing you were at the Zhuge family holiday house instead."
"I seem to be somewhat discontent either way," Jiang Wei observed, trying to keep his voice neutral to Lu Xun's ears. But it wasn't hard with the noise of the water against the boat's hull, the boat's motor, and also the music blaring.
"This way you don't feel guilty though, do you?" Lu Xun laughed. "Just uncomfortable. It's a rock versus a hard place, I'll give, but I'm of the opinion that constant guilt is among the worst of emotions to be afflicted with."
Mortification isn't far behind, Jiang Wei thought. But said nothing until Lu Xun leaned back from the bar and into the path of one of the older-looking students aboard.
"Lü Meng, sir~" Lu Xun said with a smile that was overly affectionate and borderline tipsy. "Could you take this if you're going to the bar? And Boyue's, too." He plucked Jiang Wei's empty glass from his hands before any protest could be lodged.
Jiang Wei's mouth clicked shut as Lü Meng chuckled. "Just for you, Lu Xun. But don't come to expect this treatment."
"Not all the time anyway," Lu Xun grinned, making Lü Meng laugh again as he walked away.
Jiang Wei felt scandalized. "Wasn't he your senior on the debating team?" he hissed.
Lu Xun tilted his head. "The supervising student teacher, actually."
"That's even worse," Jiang Wei said, appalled. He could hardly imagine such familiarity-superiority almost-toward Zhuge Liang or anyone in a position of authority like that.
Lu Xun shrugged, an amused light behind his smile. "It's okay. We help each other out."
"…really," Jiang Wei said and leaned his head down in his hands. Maybe it was seasickness after all, but guilt or no guilt, he felt that he most certainly would have preferred to be home alone instead of on this crazy boat in the middle of the bay.
[ 03 ][ BRAVE STORY / AQUA TIMEZ - KETSUI NO ASA NI ]
They were docked, but still with no sign of leaving long after the late spring sunset. (Of course not: "PARTY 'TIL DAWN!" Sun Ce had hollered, and not many could really argue with resolve like that.)
Lü Meng had taken the car to get more ice or drinks or something, Zhou Yu with him. Zhou Tai had taken Sun Quan home.
Lu Xun sat curled upon the beach, still looking out at those waves despite the way he hugged his legs to his chest. His toes dug into the warm sand.
"Cold?" Jiang Wei guessed.
"A little," Lu Xun admitted.
"That's logical, I suppose," Jiang Wei said, coming to sit by his side, "since you're kind of small."
Lu Xun gave him a glare, briefly indignant. "I am not." But the token protest was not too prideful to decline an offer of warmth. Lu Xun curled into Jiang Wei's side of his own accord, space enough under Jiang Wei's arm in his large green overcoat. Despite the trace alcohol on Lu Xun's breath, it was clear he was sobering.
Jiang Wei shook his head. "Okay." He supposed there were plenty of people shorter than 5'7. At Shu High and Wu College such people were mostly girls and unfortunate first years, but the point still stood. Lu Xun was lithe and his form graceful-a build like Zhang Fei's would hardly have pulled off the default formal sharpness in Lu Xun's smile. Jiang Wei said, "You're a nice size."
The comment earned him a strange look but Lu Xun turned away again with nothing said, and in return Jiang Wei left his arm where it was and let the warmth between them remain.
[ 04 ][ FULL METAL PANIC - KARENAI HANA ]
Sunburn, Jiang Wei discovered, was good for very little but perhaps hiding a blush.
"I heard you got up to some mischief over the weekend," Pang Tong said, his rolling tones full of amusement.
"It was not mischief," Jiang Wei maintained.
"But anything Wu's invariably mischief," Pang Tong said, smiling beneath his ever-present face mask. ("Life, my dear Boyue, is an allergen.") His eyes crinkled up at the corners. "So~ why don't you tell me about it…?"
"Nothing happened," Jiang Wei said, feeling his face on fire.
Pang Tong laughed. "My sources beg to differ~"
"…sources?" Inwardly, Jiang Wei sighed. But of course Pang Tong would have 'sources' even within a rival school and even on a weekend.
"Lu Su," Pang Tong explained happily. "He and I are good friends, though doubtless you hardly noticed his presence at the party."
Indeed, though Lu Xun had introduced everyone over the course of the day, Jiang Wei was hard-pressed to recall Lu Su's face. "…you are correct. I apologise."
"Not at all," Pang Tong chuckled. "Bit of a wallflower, that one, but he suits my uses nicely. So…?"
Already accustomed to Pang Tong's typical manner, Jiang Wei paid Lu Su's belittlement no mind. "Boyan was cold," was all he said. Not even Lu Su could have noticed Lu Xun's fingers curled into Jiang Wei's own under his green jacket as the two of them dozed. And not even Pang Tong should have been able to see the current flush Jiang Wei definitely felt on his face through the burn across his nose.
Yet even as Pang Tong chuckled, "I see~ I see," and let the matter go, Jiang Wei was left with no doubt that he had indeed just been completely transparent.
[ 05 ][ HAKUOUKI / YOSHIOKA AIKA - IZAYOI NAMIDA ]
Lu Xun kisses him later, just around the corner from the Wu College gates after school, apparently okay with passers-by. But as he grabs Jiang Wei's tie and yanks him down with a smile, his mouth as warm as the rest of him on a summer's day, Jiang Wei can't find it in himself to care.
"What even-" transpired here? or started this whole thing? Jiang Wei wants to ask later, much later, with just the two of them in Lu Xun's sharehouse room. (Jiang Wei has never heard the other's parents mentioned but wonders about it only briefly. His scans the walls without thought, noting the photos everywhere of friends, friends, acquaintances and schoolmates, and even sees himself in a few-though mostly in the background of Zhuge Liang's focus.)
Lu Xun laughs, playing with the ends of Jiang Wei's long hair-still up in a tight ponytail despite everything. "My debating team is counting on me. This is the best way to get to know an opponent apart from stalking him."
Jiang Wei blinks. "That isn't true."
"It is," Lu Xun tells him, smiling. "But isn't the reason, I'll give you that."
"It's not?" Jiang Wei says mildly. Not that he minds. "I wouldn't put it past you."
Lu Xun waves his concern away. "I'm not that shallow. Nor is our team weak enough to need it."
[ 06 ][ ABC - OROCHI TAIKO (live) ]
Still, it's possible Lu Xun is that shallow. The thought amuses Jiang Wei kind of quietly.
Lu Xun tans in the sun like he was born to soak up its rays. Jiang Wei can't help admiring his transformation over the summer, from the little braids that appear to the feather hairclips, the bangles around his wrists and the… little white marks he paints under one eye on festival days.
It's vaguely camp and definitely weird but Lu Xun pulls it off-to the extent that it makes Jiang Wei feel kind of like Lu Su beside Zhou Yu sometimes (or almost anybody beside upperclassman Ma Chao). A complete and utter wallflower.
Though this would hardly bother him under normal circumstances, if Lu Xun describes his hair as so 90's just one more time…
On a whim (almost), when his bangs grow out too long to keep, Jiang Wei decides to get a proper haircut. Something different.
The new style frames his face, all thinned and layered with a touch of lightening for texture, and bangs shorter than his eyes for the first time in a long time. It's a strange sight in the mirror afterward-fluffy flicks complementing his usual, dead-straight strands-strange and different, but not too bad.
If barely recognising oneself can count as 'not too bad'...
Mechanically, Jiang Wei dons his festival outfit once he gets home-a traditional hanfu that his mother made, in rich green darted through with silver-and ties his ponytail loose down by his nape. With one last self-conscious glance in the mirror and an unsure flick at the little bit of fringe that falls determinedly between his eyes, Jiang Wei decides that the ensemble could look worse and makes his way to Lu Xun's meeting spot with a quick message: Eta 5.
Heads turn when he walks. Though he's used to being on the tall side (and occasionally dressing up funny as well, because sometimes Shu High gets their clubs involved in strange things), this kind of attention is rather new.
For the first time in a long time he doesn't get an I already see you~ message back from Lu Xun either.
That in itself makes the self-consciousness worth it but tenfold, as they meet and Jiang Wei smiles in greeting, is the sudden and startling impression that for once Lu Xun has eyes for no one else.
[ 07 ][ ABC-Z - ASHITA NO TAME NI BOKU GA IRU (live) ]
"Wow," Lu Xun says, genuine surprise in his kohl-lined eyes as his fingers brush Jiang Wei's cheeks and bangs and flicks of hair. "Boyue, you actually look your age!"
Jiang Wei smiles, self-conscious all over again though for a different reason now, and shrugs away Lu Xun's almost childlike wonder. "It's just a haircut." He's pleased though, inwardly, that the change has proven positive. "If you're done admiring it, we can go."
Lu Xun laughs. "Let's go. I can multitask."
Through the stalls side by side, they walk with shoulders brushing. There are dumplings to try, and funny fishing games to play (though the cocky, white-haired boy beside them sweeps all the prizes without contest). It's a pleasant night until Zhuge Liang passes the end of the road with typically sedate majesty, his red-haired girlfriend on his arm, and Jiang Wei's gaze lingers a little too long and a little too wistful.
"Hey," Lu Xun says, prodding him with the end of a bamboo fishing rod. "Boyue."
"…sorry," Jiang Wei says, rubbing at eyes that are tired from the lanterns and lights and smoke and things.
Lu Xun only smiles. "Don't apologise or I'd have to do the same were Lü Meng present."
Jiang Wei shakes his head, picking between the lines: Don't think I'd be here if Lü Meng were interested in me either. "But he's not."
"He's not, and he won't be." Lu Xun shrugs, handing Jiang Wei the bamboo rod, apparently unfazed. And because they're not the kind to have secrets of the mind, he adds, "Nor will Zhuge Liang."
Jiang Wei says nothing to that, turning his attention back to the fishing game at hand. Still, a fond smile lifts his mouth beneath the silence. It was nice, he thinks, hearing Lu Xun's admission; knowing they are both on the same page. It's nice to feel it's okay.
[ 08 ][ GACKT - VANILLA (…lol) ]
Still, when it's just the two of them, Lu Xun with his arms pinned in a pool of red-orange hanfu and Jiang Wei's mouth against his neck and their warmth shared again-those times they are perhaps closer than they should be-it's never anyone else that Jiang Wei imagines when he closes his eyes and hides his face against Lu Xun's shoulder.
It could be no one else, after all, who turns to look at him with his own eyes dark and heavy and a smile that says as he says, "Look at me, Boyue," I want to see you lose control.
Jiang Wei obliges, raising his head through his embarrassment. Smiles a little. Because likewise it is only ever Jiang Wei's name a breath of laughter on Lu Xun's lips.
[ 09 ][ GUNDAM SEED: YZAK JULE - SHOOT ]
"You know, it's strange now with your haircut," Lu Xun says softly, watching.
More than half asleep, Jiang Wei makes a puzzled noise and squints over almost blearily. He's eloquent, really: "…what?"
Lu Xun twines the long bits of Jiang Wei's hair through his fingers, idle. "I'll admit I was attracted to you at first because you looked older than you were," he says. "But after getting to know you better… and now that you don't look, you know, thirty…"
"Thirty...?" Jiang Wei's brow furrows. "Should I not have cut it, then?"
Lu Xun shakes his head, his fingers brushing gently over Jiang Wei's bangs. "No, it looks good. I… like it."
It takes Jiang Wei's sleep-addled brain a moment longer than usual to put two and two together-to turn the line of Lu Xun's statement from I like it to I like you. His cheeks quickly flush when he does though, and he buries his face again against Lu Xun's pleased laughter.
[ 10 ][ MICHAEL PAYNTER / THE VERONICAS - LOVE THE FALL ]
"I hope you slept well, Boyue," Lu Xun said on the way to school, smiling.
"Of course," Jiang Wei answered. His voice crackled only faintly over the phone. "Wu College will be a tough enough opponent without my handicapping our side."
Lu Xun laughed into the wind as his bike crested a small hill and coasted easily down. "Flattery will get you nowhere."
"Fact, however, is a necessary base for any good attack."
"I look forward to seeing this 'good' attack of yours," Lu Xun told him, to which Jiang Wei's dry smile was almost audible.
"You think you know it."
"I do know it. You ran it by me two days ago trying to test my counterarguments."
"If you're naïve enough to believe I gave you our entire argument, Boyan…"
"I've got another think coming?" Lu Xun supposed. "Please, I know at least that much. But with what you did give me, filling the gaps was hardly difficult."
Jiang Wei held silent for a moment, Lu Xun amused quietly by his lack of a response until at last, "…you're bluffing," he said.
"Am I really?" Lu Xun smiled. "Ah, but what does it matter if I've already shaken your confidence…"
"You have not. I have perfectly good confidence in my skills," Jiang Wei said, his voice as even as ever-at least on the surface.
"You have perfect confidence in your physical skills, Boyue, as well you should. But your mental balance still needs some work. You're still aware you have very large shoes to fill, after all."
"That is not-" Jiang Wei cut himself off mid-argument. "Answering your call was a bad idea."
"It was," Lu Xun agreed, swinging his bike through the Wu College side gate with a grin. "You only just realised?"
"I'm going to hang up now."
Lu Xun laughed. "I've just reached school anyway. See you at the moot, Boyue, and after."
"I'll be at the library."
"Say hi to your tutor for me."