Work Text:
“Gege,” Hua Cheng flopped onto his lap.
Xie Lian smiled down at his boyfriend, reaching out to cup his face. “Yes?”
“Remember the other day when you got jealous?”
Xie Lian’s face scrunched up in dismay. “San Lang, you promised not to talk about it anymore, it won’t happen again.”
Hua Cheng seemed to droop a bit at that. “Sorry gege, I didn’t mean to tease you,” he leaned into Xie Lian’s hand, kissing at it softly.
He wasn’t trying to wiggle his way into getting what he wanted or pouting, this was genuine disappointment, even if Hua Cheng was doing his best to hide it. But that made it worse, that made it so much worse, because as much as Hua Cheng pampered and doted on him, Xie Lian was just as guilty of spoiling him rotten trying to give him the stars and moon if he expressed interest in them.
So, with great difficulty, Xie Lian brought up his other hand to trace along Hua Cheng’s hairline as he spoke. “What is it?”
“Gege doesn’t have to talk about things he doesn’t like. This one knows it was unpleasant for you.” It was genuine, not a goading for more questions. Xie Lian could’ve dropped it and Hua Cheng would have never brought it up again.
But Xie Lian really wanted to spoil him so how could he ever drop it? “San Lang,” he pinched his boyfriend’s cheek lightly. “What did you want to say?”
Hua Cheng glanced away. “Gege knows that this San Lang liked it.”
Xie Lian felt his cheeks start to heat up. “Yes I know.”
“Not just the kiss.”
Xie Lian’s embarrassment faded a little. “Hm?”
“It was nice to see gege getting possessive,” Hua Cheng glanced back up at him, clearly a bit nervous about what he was asking.
“You didn’t do anything wrong though, it was an overreaction.”
“Gege didn’t make me feel like I’d done anything wrong. It was… I liked feeling like gege really wanted me.” Hua Cheng admitted softly.
Xie Lian felt his heart lurch in protest, as if it was trying to climb out of Xie Lian’s chest and present itself to Hua Cheng as indisputable proof of his love. “I do want you. I love my San Lang so much.”
“I know, that’s not…” Hua Cheng looked away, expression complicated.
Xie Lian knew Hua Cheng had struggled with learning how to be loved when they’d gotten together, but they both had honestly and Xie Lian thought they had worked it out. Hua Cheng felt comfortable asking him for things and Xie Lian felt the same way. He never doubted Hua Cheng’s love, it was honestly pretty hard to with how obvious he made it. But Xie Lian had thought he’d made his love obvious too. Was that not the case?
“How can I help San Lang understand how loved he is?”
“Could gege… pretend to be jealous?”
Xie Lian supposed given the context of the conversation he should’ve expected that, but it still surprised him.
“When we go out. Could gege show other people I’m his?”
Xie Lian’s blush flared right back up. “I’m not going to kiss you like that in public again, it was really inappropriate!”
“It doesn’t have to be so drastic,” it was clear this request had been harder for him to ask, everything about his expression telling Xie Lian that his boyfriend would clam up on the matter if pressed for too long.
So, coughing a few times, Xie Lian tried to school his face, mostly succeeding. He’d used to have a very good poker face and extremely thick skin. Hua Cheng had a way of washing all that away. “Does San Lang have examples of the types of things he has in mind?”
After a marathon of extremely cheesy romcoms, Xie Lian thought he mostly got the idea.
***
Even after hearing what Hua Cheng wanted, it was hard for Xie Lian to actually act on it. It was pretty difficult to be a possessive boyfriend when your partner was already glued to your side trading kisses and easy conversation with you at any given moment. The natural state of their day to day interactions simply didn’t leave any room for possessive jealousy when there was so much trust and affection between them. And with them either holding hands or nestled against each other it was hard for Xie Lian to employ any of the more casual possessive mannerisms the movies had taught him. Like Hua Cheng had said before, it was fairly obvious to anyone who met them that they were together.
So it took a whole week for an opportunity to present itself.
Truthfully, though he hadn’t admitted it to Hua Cheng, he’d only changed his mind and agreed to go to Shi Qingxuan’s party at all for this exact opportunity. Surrounded by people who mostly didn’t know them, at least one of them was bound to give Xie Lian the chance to show off his boyfriend the way Hua Cheng wanted to be shown off.
But, he had miscalculated. They’d already been at the party a full hour but walking around with their fingers intertwined together while Xie Lian made small talk with people… they just kept getting comments about how cute they were together. It was appreciated but not really conducive to Xie Lian acting jealous.
Figuring he’d have to give up on the plan today, he left Hua Cheng talking with He Xuan as he went to get drinks for them both.
Maybe he could just get more snuggly? Did that count as being possessive? He didn’t think so, but he knew Hua Cheng wouldn’t dislike it at least so it couldn’t hurt. Maybe just another hour and then they’d head back home.
It took him longer than he’d expected to get them drinks since the first time he’d found them he’d ended up spilling them on someone who bumped into him and after cleaning that up the wine had been finished off and Xie Lian had had to go find Shi Qingxuan to open another bottle.
But it was when he came back that he saw it: his opportunity.
Hua Cheng was sitting on the couch next to an acquaintance Xie Lian only knew through their contact photo on Hua Cheng’s phone. They seemed to be getting along well enough. It was kind of cute actually to see Hua Cheng talking with someone like this, so focused and with that mask of vague disinterest Xie Lian knew he only mostly was serious about. If Hua Cheng had really disliked the conversation he wouldn’t have been facing the person like that when they talked or speaking in as long of sentences as he clearly was.
Part of Xie Lian found himself loath to ruin this moment. He loved seeing his boyfriend like this. But… he really didn’t know when he’d get a chance like this again and Hua Cheng could just go back to the conversation after right?
So, taking a deep breath, Xie Lian tried to get into his role before walking over.
Hua Cheng’s eye lit up when he noticed him, already interrupting his own conversation to smile up at Xie Lian. “Gege, you’re back!” He scooted to make room on the couch.
Xie Lian set the drinks down on the coffee table in front of them and plopped into Hua Cheng’s lap, lifting a hand to lightly rest on Hua Cheng’s head. Possessive. Confident. Curling Hua Cheng in towards him, Xie Lian smiled politely to the man Hua Cheng had been talking with.
“Sorry to interrupt, you can keep talking. I’m San Lang’s boyfriend, oh sorry, you probably call him Hua Cheng, don’t you? He doesn’t like it when other people use his nickname. I’m Xie Lian.” Though he was smiling nicely, Xie Lian wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it. He sounded so stupid and petty, this probably wasn’t what Hua Cheng had in mind at all!
But much to his surprise, Hua Cheng wrapped his arms around Xie Lian and nuzzled him happily.
“Tan Zixin. Hua Cheng talks a lot about you,” it was clear he was a bit confused by Xie Lian’s little attempt at being possessive.
Xie Lian couldn’t help but melt back into his boyfriend though, nuzzling him in equal measure. “I really didn’t mean to interrupt, you two can keep talking.”
“It was just about work, gege didn’t interrupt much,” Hua Cheng smiled.
Xie Lian shot Tan Zixin an apologetic look.
“It’s fine, we really were just talking about work.”
“I want to hear about my San Lang’s work. What’s he like?” Xie Lian was pretty sure that wasn’t standard possessive-jealous questioning, but he really was curious.
“I tell gege about my work all the time.”
“But other people don’t. I want to hear your friends complimenting my San Lang.”
Hua Cheng nestled even happier into the crook of his neck.
“Unless that’s too weird?” Xie Lian gave Tan Zixin another apologetic look.
The man shook his head though, smiling. “No it’s fine, if it’s not going to bore you.”
Xie Lian shook his head. “Anything that makes my San Lang happy makes me happy. He likes talking to you, please stay.”
“Gege,” Hua Cheng huffed.
Feeling his blush creep through his iron willed restraint, Xie Lian moved to whisper in his boyfriend’s ear his best attempt at salvaging the possessive act. “San Lang can talk to other people as much as he likes, I know who he’s coming home with.”
He felt as much as heard Hua Cheng’s breath catch.
“Talk to your friend, gege—“ Xie Lian felt his blush completely taking over. “Gege will remind you who you belong to later.”
He was fairly sure he’d just caused his boyfriend to stop breathing but Xie Lian honestly wasn’t faring much better. Bright red, he flashed a very confused and honestly godly patient Tan Zixin another apologetic smile as he reached for his wine.
“So… anyways,” the man tried to continue the conversation, Hua Cheng slowly coming too though Xie Lian had unfortunately ruined any chance of getting Hua Cheng back up into multiple sentence replies.
It was worth it for how starstruck Hua Cheng looked when they finally went home though.