Jiāng Chéng (zidian) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-05-15 12:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: george weasley, ₴ inactive: jiang cheng |
Log: George & Jiang Cheng
He almost turned right back around when he stepped inside and a customer bumped into him on their way out. If he'd been more cowardly, maybe he would have. Instead, he adjusted his grip on the large clay pot in his hands and glared at anyone who got too close to him. When he spotted George, his expression brightened for a quick blinding flash before he got his face under control.
"Is this a bad time?" he asked as approached. "I can leave this and go."
Fred had done a great job keeping the shop open. Especially given some of the staff had been sent back in time. George felt like that meant his brother deserved a break from being there, so he had sent Fred home hours ago to hover over Charlie. Who was, by all means, was recovering nicely, but still needed supervision because no one trusted him to not try and do things he really should only do when he was fully recovered.
George probably should have been home too because he was a tiny bit exhausted, but his body still hadn't settled down from being on guard all of the time. Ancient Vallo had set his teeth on edge because it didn't have the same protections and assurances against random monster attacks that their current time did. Sure, ransom shit happened here too, but there was usually a lead up to something trying to kill them here. Some sort of warning.
So he was still in that fight or flight mode, which he figured he'd make good use of by coming to the shop and working that nervous energy off. He had just come up to the front area to grab something off the shelf, when he spotted a familiar robe clad figure. And it was stupid, how quickly he felt better just by seeing the other man there. "Hey," he said, the surprise evident in his voice. It was quickly followed by, "No, it's fine. Stay. Come through to the back, we were about to close for the night anyway." He nodded at the employee that was working the front and told her, "Lock up for the night, yeah? I'll see you tomorrow."
Then he held open the curtain that separated the back from the customer facing part of the shop and led Jiang Cheng through. He bypassed the back workshop though and inventory stores, to lead him to a narrow set of steps that led to the flat above. It wasn't used often, but there was a small kitchen, living area, and two small bedrooms up above the shop. A little less homey than the Burrow, but just as cluttered and lived in.
"Is that your sister's soup I'm smelling?" The ginger asked, trying to get his stupid heart rate to calm down. This was probably the first time they had been alone since George's confessions and setting up their first date.
Jiang Cheng was annoyingly relieved not to be sent away. He was even more glad to be led somewhere private. While there was some curiosity about this space above the shop, he was too distracted to ask questions. He had to look away from George and focus on setting the clay pot on a table just to answer his question at all.
"It is. Some of it's for Charlie, so don't just leave it here so you can keep it all for yourself." Now that his hands were free, he felt like a rowboat on storm-rough waters. Coming here had been a terrible idea but it was too late. He was here. He was here and he craved, which frankly had never really worked out well for him, but it was an instinct he followed in the moment anyway. He just needed to confirm this, whatever this was. That it wasn't some figment of his lonely imagination, made worse by ten days of George off in peril and writing him letters.
Jiang Cheng moved with surprising quickness. He fisted his hands into George's clothes, crowded him against the closest wall, and claimed his mouth in a kiss.
George had been ready to babble on about some nonsense or another, maybe make a joke about how if Charlie wanted soup, he needed to quit getting used as a chew toy. All of that was rapidly pushed to the side as he was shoved up against the wall and kissed.
Merlin, it had been ages since he had been close to someone like this. Was he a little touch starved? Maybe. So instead of going pliant under the kiss, he returned it with a surprising intensity, reaching up to clutch JC's shoulder to help keep himself steady and to pull the other man closer. Was it a little desperate? Sure. But you had to forgive him, he had been waiting to get close to Jiang Cheng like this for awhile now. And, of course, part of it was that he was relieved to see him again after spending too much time in a past that had been trying to kill him.
While Jiang Cheng wasn’t a mind reader, he knew enough about his own touch-starvation to recognize it in the way George gripped him. It dissolved the last bit of impatient anxiety in him and he pressed closer for a second, his grip gentling even as mouth stayed greedy. What intimacy he’d experienced over the years had always been businesslike. Taking care of a physical need without really feeling anything about it one way or the other. This was anything but businesslike.
He broke off with an abrupt inhale and a full step back. “Right.” The roughness of his voice was telling. “Good to have that settled,” he mumbled, a helpless smile twisting at his mouth, this way and that. He realized he was staring at a harmless point on George’s shoulder and jerked his gaze to George’s eyes instead. “Presumptuous of me, though. If you have any complaints, I deserve to hear them.”
Blinking rapidly as Jiang Cheng pulled away, it took a moment for George to remember where he was and come back to reality. Because that just happened and it felt like it had been a long time coming. Complaints, though? Definitely not.
It was hard to wipe that dumbfounded look off George’s face because that voice was doing things to him. How was he expected to put words together now? That was just rude of anyone to expect. “Well,” he started, before clearing his throat and forcing himself to let go of the other man’s shoulder. “Well,” he tried again, mind completely blank. Words. He could do this. He was clever. “No complaints here. None. You brought me dinner first, so what’s there to complain about? Nothing.” He was babbling. Wonderful. Jiang Cheng just broke him.
George visibly and verbally flustered was a surprise and a delight. Jiang Cheng usually found some excuse to roll his eyes at someone rambling at him but this, this was something to savor. He felt the smile on his face grow, slow and pleased and almost dangerous. A little sputtering laugh huffed out of him.
"Aren't we a pair?" he teased. "You had the perfect opportunity to harass me about taking liberties and instead you look…" Feeling brave, he reached out to tuck his fingers under George's collar, pulling it away from his warm neck. "You look like you could use a fan. Do you need to sit down?" he smirked.
Damn his Weasley complexion. It was a curse through and through. There was no hiding the flush that had spread from the top of his head to all the way down to his neck. It was evidence of exactly how affected he was by Jiang Cheng. He hadn't been lying to Wei Wuxian when he had said he would be content to be just friends with his brother. But if he said he hadn't imagined this moment once or twice before, that wouldn't have been the truth. This had gone better than any daydream though.
George just hadn't counted on how inarticulate he would come off.
The red head snorted. "I don't need a fan, do you need a fan? I'm perfectly fine." Liar. Merlin, did Bill get all the suave genes and stick the rest of them with scraps? It felt like it. Switching tactics, he added, "Anyway, any sane person would be flustered if some handsome demon cultivator came around kissing people willy-nilly. I don't know what's gotten into you, you're usually so proper." And even as he said those words, he reached out to grab the same hand that had been messing about with his collar. More subdued, he continued, "Honestly though, probably a good thing you hadn't done that sooner. Would have made being stuck in the past much more worse, knowing what I was missing out on."
A chunk of Jiang Cheng’s boldness burnt away with George taking his hand, consumed by nervous energy. This could have gone terribly bad. It likely still would. But for the moment, he was warm and pleased and maybe a little smug. He was also entirely too aware of every point of contact on his hand. The fact that he was annoyed by these feelings was just proof of his cynicism.
Feelings were trouble. Wanting things for himself ended badly.
“I’m not kissing anyone willy-nilly. I don’t do anything willy-nilly.” He huffed a breath and closed his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I just saw you back here, in one piece, and…” He gestured vaguely with his hands like that answered everything. It was all the answer George was getting anyway. Jiang Cheng’s throat was dry. “Make no mistake. You still owe me a date.”
It was nice seeing him flustered over all of this too, but George didn’t bother teasing him anymore than this. He already knew it was hard enough for himself, actually acting on these impulses and feelings, and he could only imagine it was worse for Jiang Cheng, who was buttoned up even more than him when it came to the matters of the heart. So he left it alone, before he did anything stupid and ruin the moment.
Instead, he smiled and kept his tone deliberately light, the quiet emotion from earlier a distant memory now, “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten. Somewhere nice and fancy, so that I have to dress up for you. How about this Saturday?” Hopefully the place he had picked would accept ‘Vallo sent me back in time, sorry for missing our reservations,’ as a valid excuse and give them this weekend as an option.
Jiang Cheng seemed to get some of his composure back, thanks to George’s diplomatic response. He forced himself to take another step back and turn towards the soup on the table. Surely distance would cool down his heated blood. He stopped thinking about the feeling of George’s mouth against his and the way he could feel George’s heart pounded beneath his hands. “Saturday would be fine. Did you have some place in mind where I should meet you or are you going to wear your nice clothes and come get me at Lotus Pier?” He rolled his eyes as he glanced over his shoulder.
“If it’s the latter, I can’t promise my brother won’t harass us both if he happens to be around.” After a moment of thought, Jiang Cheng frowned petulantly. “Actually, I can promise he will do exactly that. He’s got a nose for this business now, I swear.”
There would be time for more vulnerability later, but right now, everything was new and a little bit terrifying, so George could put on the brakes. Hopefully Vallo would give them a nice, long time to figure it all out, to get past the doubts.
He hooked his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans and shuffled over to the kitchen, to get two bowls. Charlie could get his soup later. “You only get one first date, right? I think, despite your brother, I should be coming to pick you up.” He remembered the advice Jiang Cheng had given him much earlier, when he thought George had been courting Tina. To do it properly. So now that he was actually courting someone, he would.
Jiang Cheng watched George move across the room before he tore his gaze away. The clay pot provided an adequate excuse to keep his hands busy, at least. He moved it away from the edge of the table and opened it to make sure the contents still looked as good as when he left Lotus Pier. Everything was in order.
"I suppose that's true." How completely idiotic that he was now nervous about this date when they were literally alone together right now. He sighed and sat down in a chair with as much "casual" as he was capable of. "I can fly us wherever you intend us to go. If you'd like a nice view without straddling a broom, that is…"
Oh the joke was on the tip of his tongue. George barely managed to repress it though, knowing that all he would get is an eyeroll and the mood would go back to their typical ‘we’re just friends and you’re an idiot’ vibe. And he didn’t want that. Not yet.
“We could do that,” George easily agreed, putting the bowls down and reaching for the ladle to start carefully scooping out the soup. Yanli’s soup was artful. “I mean, it’s only fair we try it your way since I got to see you on a broom. Still sore about the Bludger you knocked into me, by the way, I will repay that favour.” Putting one bowl in front of Jiang Cheng and one next to him for himself, he came around to sit down next to him. “Anyway, make sure you thank your sister for the soup, yeah?” Bumping his shoulder into Jiang Cheng’s because he couldn’t resist one more little touch now that he had a taste of it, he added, “Dig in.”