Work Text:
It was when Jiang Cheng was walking one of the biggest dogs he’s ever had when he got a random message from a number he didn’t recognize. The context was also straight out of the blue—and the person didn’t even introduce themself?
(XXX) XXX-XXXX:
[09:23]
Hey so I know it’s really short notice, but would you be available to watch my son in a few hours? I have to head to work and I can’t find anyone to sit for him.
Who the fuck was this person? Did they accidentally type in their babysitter’s number wrong or something? He wouldn’t be able to question them right now, though. He was on a job, and he still had to pet sit at the same person’s house for another half an hour or so. So, this mysterious person would just have to wait and be patient before he gave any semblance of an answer.
Me:
[10:17]
I have no clue who you are, and I was in the middle of something, so if you could take the time to explain who the fuck you are that would be great.
(XXX) XXX-XXX:
[10:18]
Oh, you are completely right I apologize for that. You see, my brother recommended you to me since he knows that you babysit your nephew a lot, so he thought that you would be a good choice to watch my son for the duration that I’m working.
Me:
[10:19]
Yeah that’s cool and all but I still don’t have any clue as to who you are
(XXX) XXX-XXXX:
[10:19]
Ah, you’re right again; my name is Lan Huan. A pleasure to meet you!
Me:
[10:19]
You’re painfully optimistic
Me:
[10:19]
What makes you think I even want to look after a kid right now?
Lan Huan:
[10:19]
I’ll pay you ¥712.
Me:
[10:19]
WWX pays me more than that to babysit A-Yuan
Lan Huan:
[10:19]
Per hour.
Me:
[10:19]
Deal
Lan Huan:
[10:19]
Thank you! I won’t be home when you get there, so I do apologize for that; I have to leave pretty soon.
Me:
[10:20]
Mood flip much?
Me:
[10:20]
God I’m already starting to regret this
Me:
[10:20]
Is there anything I should know beforehand? Like, his allergies, any possible pets I might have to take care of while also looking after your kid, plants that I need to water, rules of the house that I need to be aware of—those types of things?
Lan Huan:
[10:20]
That would be a smart idea to give that information to you, wouldn’t it?
Me:
[10:21]
I mean if you want me to accidentally poison your kid while you’re away I’ll do it, just thought I’d ask before I did or something
Lan Huan:
[10:21]
Ah, no I’m good you don’t need to do that…
Lan Huan:
[10:21]
That we know of, Jingyi doesn’t have any allergies, we don’t have any pets, and I do have quite a few plants that probably need to be watered that are scattered throughout the house (they’re very easy to care for, just water them around 3:00 with some water from the kitchen sink, please? Just fill it in a pitcher from one of the kitchen cabinets), and we don’t have that many rules set, but the most prominent ones are no writing on the walls, no tracking mud in the house, don’t break anything, no sweets before bed, his bedtime is at 8:00—those are the ones that I would like kept the most, thank you.
Me:
[10:22]
Got it
Me:
[10:22]
What’s your address?
When Lan Huan had talked about his house, Jiang Cheng didn’t think it was going to be this fancy looking. He had even double-checked the text with the address to make sure he didn’t hallucinate. Not that he was thinking that Lan Huan was the type of person to do that sort of thing—he knows enough about him from both Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.
The place was nice. And it wasn’t like Jiang Cheng had never seen a house like this—hell, he lived in one when he was younger (some memories weren’t that good though)—he was just on edge. He was meeting a little kid (he hasn’t had to do that since “meeting” Jin Ling) he had barely any knowledge of before this day, and he was expected to get along with him for hours on end. Jiang Cheng didn’t think of himself as a “good with kids” type of guy, but if Wei Wuxian’s boyfriend said he was alright then sure, just blame all of the future problems on him and not Jiang Cheng.
Shutting the door to his car, he walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell since he didn’t have a key. He shuffled on his feet while waiting, his hands stuffed into the pocket of his hoodie to shield himself from the cold weather. Hearing the door click, Jiang Cheng turned his attention back to the door and saw a boy that looked to be around 10 years old staring into his soul. He felt a headache coming in.
“Who are you?” The kid’s voice was high—understandable since he was so young—and he raised an eyebrow when Jiang Cheng’s jaw clenched.
“You’re certainly not much like your father.”
“I’m adopted, so, that’s a given.” The kid honest to God looked incredibly bored.
“I like you already.” Jiang Cheng smirked and silently asked if he would be let inside.
The boy gave a small nod and backed up, opening up the door a little more to allow Jiang Cheng inside the house. “I’ll give you a tour of this place, how ‘bout that?”
They ended up doing a tour of the house as suggested. Jiang Cheng had learned the kid’s name was Jingyi in the midst of figuring out the layout of the house, and in turn, he gave his own.
“So you’re Wei Ying’s younger brother?”
“Way to rub salt in the wound.”
“You seem like you would be the older one of the two of you.”
“I wish I was, then I could yell at him more for what kind of shit he tries to pull all the fucking time.”
Jiang Cheng started to head toward the couch in the living room (that room was quite honestly the size of his entire apartment building) and made himself comfortable. Jingyi, seeing this, immediately got a grin on his face and turned his body fully toward the other. When Jiang Cheng saw his face, he unconsciously tensed, knowing what was to come since he had a nephew that tried to jump on literally any surface he could.
The crazy kid that he now had the dilapidating duty of watching over for the rest of the day started to run, then when he was four steps away from the couch Jiang Cheng resided on he leaped, landing straight on his stomach, making him release a grunt of pain. The younger then started to bounce, Jiang Cheng letting out small huffs of breath as he felt his lungs become restricted.
“What do you wanna do now? I’m usually pretty bored when other people watch me and they don’t let me do anything because they’re scared of what my dad might think…”
Jiang Cheng grabbed the ten-year-old by his side, forcing him to stop moving so he could breathe correctly. “Well, lucky for you I couldn’t give any more shits about what your father may think right now, so I say we decide together what we’ll do.”
The kid seemed to ponder on his words, bringing a finger to his bottom lip and tilting his head, doing what Jiang Cheng thought was an incredibly cliche thing, but, whatever. Then Jingyi widened his eyes, and put both of his hands on Jiang Cheng’s shoulders, forcing his face incredibly close to Jiang Cheng’s own to the point where he was itching to throw the offending child into the wall (he wouldn’t do that though, he did not want to get sued by his “brother-in-law” thank you very much).
“What if we go into town and do stuff? We could go to the park, get ice cream, fun stuff!”
Jiang Cheng moved a hand in front of Jingyi’s face, pushing him back and then lifting him and putting him on the ground next to the couch. He then made to sit up on the couch himself, pulling his legs over the side of the seat and hunched over with his arms resting on his knees. “We could do that, sure. I don’t have a key to get back into the house though.”
“Ask my dad, idiot.”
“Don’t say that. Say dipshit instead; that’ll get your point across a lot better.”
“Ah, okay dipshit.”
“You better wait at least five more years before you try saying that to me, though, you got it?”
“Yeah, yeah, sure. Just text me dad already so we can go do fun stuff!”
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, taking his phone from his pocket and going to Lan Huan’s contact.
Me:
[11:06]
Is there an extra house key in this place, or do you just never have guests coming over unannounced as I wish happened to me
Lan Huan:
[11:07]
Uhh
Lan Huan:
[11:07]
Maybe in that shallow glass bowl in between the kitchen and entrance hallway?
Me:
[11:08]
K thanks
Lan Huan:
[11:08]
No problem!
Lan Huan:
[11:08]
Do I get to know what you’re going to be doing with it?
Me:
[11:08]
Ha
Me:
[11:08]
Absolutely not
Me:
[11:08]
Suffer
Lan Huan:
[11:08]
I’m a CEO, I do that 24/7
Me:
[11:08]
Sucks to suck ig idk what to tell you man
Me:
[11:08]
At least you don’t have to listen to Wei Ying while on the phone constantly about your brother
Me:
[11:08]
That shit’s exhausting
Lan Huan:
[11:09]
Haha, I bet
One hour later, Jiang Cheng was incredibly glad he had gotten paid earlier that day, holding multiple bags that contained goodies for Jingyi (what? He couldn’t not buy him something—puppy eyes were one of his weaknesses concerning kids). His wallet already started to feel lighter.
Jingyi, “Oh! Look, there’s a piercing store!”
Jiang Cheng cocked an eyebrow. “What use do you have for those?”
“To get one for you!”
Oh. This child. He was definitely going to steal him from Lan Huan and he wasn’t going to be able to do anything to stop him.
“Alright, then. Let’s go over there.”
Jingyi started to run, the bags that he insisted he carry swinging side to side, on the precipice of spilling their contents all over the mall floor. Jiang Cheng just rolled his eyes for the fifteenth time since arriving, picking up his pace to follow after the bringer of chaos.
When walking into the store, there were glass counters all over the place, showcasing the different piercings that you could buy. Jiang Cheng’s gaze was particularly set on a small lotus earring that would fit perfectly for a tragus piercing (he’s actually been wanting to get that pierced for a while).
“Did you find one you want?”
Jiang Cheng blinked, looking back at the kid he was with. “I mean, yeah, but I don’t have the area pierced yet. And, I don’t know if this place does piercings.”
“We do.”
Jiang Cheng jumped, turning around abruptly to be face-to-face with a worker. Coincidentally, they didn’t have any piercing showing, though they did have quite a lot of tattoos (some of them looked epic, Jiang Cheng realized, feeling a slight tinge of jealousy—he didn’t think his were half as cool as this person’s).
“Sorry, I happened to overhear your conversation and thought I could help. I’m Yin Lian, nice to meet you.”
They shook hands, and Jiang Cheng thought it would be courteous to introduce himself as well. “I’m Jiang Cheng.”
“Well, Mr. Jiang, I can tell that you’re pretty familiar with piercings. If you want we could get you pierced and put on whichever you want for a set price?”
Jiang Cheng thought it over (he was doing quite a lot of that today) and nodded; might as well do it now while he was here he guessed.
“Alright! Just show me which one you want, and then we can get you pierced wherever you want, then we can discuss the price!” The worker was a little too excited about this, and Jiang Cheng hoped that they had the experience to do this correctly and without fail (not that he could die from a tragus piercing, but it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious).
Jiang Cheng pointed to the small lotus piercing, just three lotus petals right next to each other with diamonds in them made with gold. The tag under them clearly stated that they were incredibly expensive but Jiang Cheng just decided to not pay attention to that little detail. If anything, he would just indirectly make his father pay for it; simple as that.
“Alright! If you will follow me, please.”
The whole process ended up going smoothly, and they were in and out of there in less than ten minutes, Jingyi insisted that he was paying (i.e. grabbing his card and putting it in the chip reader—the worker just chuckled).
By the time they had finished walking around the mall, it was already around 2:00 in the afternoon. They got to Jiang Cheng’s car, loaded all of the bags into the trunk, and started to drive around aimlessly until they agreed on where they were going to go next.
“Oh! Can we go to the aquarium?”
“Why not just go to the park like most kids your age want to?”
“Because I wanna look at all the fishes!”
“It’s fish, Jingyi, not fishes.”
“Yeah yeah.”
“What if we just go to the park first, then we can go to the aquarium? Maybe we can even get ice cream somewhere.”
“Okay!”
Jiang Cheng nodded, going the route that would take them to the big park located in the center of the city. While driving, Jingyi was chatting up a storm, talking about anything and everything that came to his mind. He even asked Jiang Cheng some questions about himself, asking what he did, how old he was, and small insignificant things (in Jiang Cheng’s perspective) like that; he did answer them though.
“I also pet sit for people on the side, too.”
“Really? What does that mean?”
“It means I get to stay at someone’s house while they’re away for a certain amount of time and take care of their pets while they’re gone—I get paid for it afterward as well.”
“So, you get to spend all day with all kinds of animals?”
“Not all day, per se, but yes. I’ve looked after cats, dogs, birds, ferrets, this one dude had an alligator; that was one of my biggest paying sits, and another girl had a monkey or two—I can’t remember.”
“Whoa! That’s so cool!”
“Yeah, but now I have a lot of knowledge about ‘exotic pets’ that I will probably never use again besides for those pet-sitting jobs if I ever get booked. All-in-all, pretty useless in my opinion.”
It was when Jiang Cheng had finished his sentence when they arrived at the park, shutting off the car when they got to a parking space and got out, walking toward one of the benches that were in the sun so they could have some warmth from the sun to block the autumn wind. (Jiang Cheng’s hoodie was helping, but the small gusts of wind bit into the fabric quite easily no matter what—in the end, he just stopped caring)
This particular park that the two of them were at happened to have a playground in the relative middle. When Jingyi saw it he took off running toward the strange contraption, not even bothering to look back at his temporary guardian.
There weren’t that many other kids at this park, which made some sense since it was so late in the year and a lot of people didn’t want to deal with the weather. Jingyi, though, was thriving in the chilly wind; he didn’t even want to wear his jacket anymore—he just threw it at Jiang Cheng and ran back to the swings.
At one point in time, a mother approached him while he was sitting by himself on the bench after Jingyi had probably tried to goad him into joining him. She had nervously cleared her throat and shuffled her way closer to her with her arms close to her body. Honestly, Jiang Cheng had no idea as to why she was acting this way; it wasn’t as if he was scary—nor was he the type of guy that was just overwhelmingly attractive that made people scared to approach them.
“Is that kid yours? He’s really cute, he definitely got it from you.” Her voice was quiet, you could quite painfully tell that she was incredibly shy. Her eyes kept flickering between Jingyi and Jiang Cheng, giving small smiles when her eyes accidentally made contact with Jiang Cheng’s.
“No, he’s not mine, thankfully. I’m just sitting for his dad while he’s at work.”
“Oh, really? Do you do anything other than babysitting, then, or is this your only job?”
“It's a bit rude to ask that, don’t you think? But, if you’re dying to know, I’m in my last year of college. I’ve just been having some odd jobs here and there to help pay for tuition.” Jiang Cheng gave a mellowed-down glare toward the woman, refusing to elaborate any more on the subject.
“Is your family not helping you pay? You look like you’re quite young?”
“Personal reasons.”
“Oh… Okay.”
They were jolted out of the conversation by Jingyi running back up to him, a smile plastered on his face and another little kid being dragged along with him.
Wait, he knew that kid.
“JIN LING?”
“Jiujiu!” Jin Ling finally realized that he also had legs and shook out of Jingyi’s grasp, running ahead and jumping onto his uncle with no remorse for how heavy he was getting.
“What the hell are you doing here you gremlin?” Jiang Cheng lifted the boy by his underarms, thankful that he still had enough arm strength to do so (he was going to have to start going back to the gym at the rate Jin Ling was growing).
“Ah, ah! A-Die was taking me here so A-Niang wouldn’t have to deal with me—at least that’s what he said.” Jin Ling shrugged his shoulders as he stopped talking, rolling his eyes without care. “Honestly I think it’s just so he can try to suck up to me since he thinks that you spend too much time with me and that you’ll replace him as my A-Die.”
Jiang Cheng had to hold in a laugh, a smile already trying to force its way onto his face. He cleared his throat, “Where is the pea—I mean, your father, Jin Ling? Wouldn’t he be worried if he couldn’t find you out here?”
“Eh, I think it’s fine.”
Jiang Cheng shrugged, fair enough; it was quite similar to what he did as a child when his own father tried to take him out in town. Maybe he’s influencing his nephew too much…
Nah.
It was just then that he remembered the woman that he was talking to, so he turned his head to see if she was still there. He wasn’t surprised to find that she wasn’t.
Setting his devil nephew back on the ground, he took the time to look between the two kids that were now in front of him. “Did you two already know each other, or did you just now meet for the first time?”
“I think I’ve seen him somewhere before, but I don’t care enough to remember. So, technically, this is the first time we have met.”
“Alright…” He closed his eyes, trying to think of things to do since Jin Ling was apparently joining the “fun” (no way in hell was he giving his nephew back to that peacock just yet—they haven’t seen each other in two weeks!). “How do you feel about ditching your dad and joining us for the day? I’ll just drop you off back at your house when we’re heading back to Jingyi’s house in a few hours.”
Jin Ling’s eyes lit up, and he started to bounce around him like he was high on something. “Yes! Can I really?!”
“Sure, I don’t give a fuck—I’ll do anything to try and piss off your dad.”
“Sweet! Alright, let’s go!”
“Hey, we still have to get ice cream as you promised, Jiang Cheng!”
Ah, right, he forgot about that. “Sure, let’s go find one then.”
“I call shotgun!”
“NO! I do!”
“But you probably did when you were on the way here with Jiujiu anyway!”
“Exactly, so I should get to continue since I did it first!”
“You’re both fucking idiots. Just do a game of rock, paper, scissors, or something. Maybe flip a coin. Just stop fucking yelling in my ear!”
Silence.
“So… Do you have a quarter?”
Jiang Cheng just rolled his eyes again as he pulled out his phone and clicked on Jin Zixuan’s message page, texting that he was stealing his kid and was going to drop him off at home in a few hours, then closing out of the app and turning off his phone without waiting for an answer.
They were able to find a place that was open for a few more hours that sold both ice cream and frozen yogurt, the latter being Jiang Cheng’s more favored of the two. When they walked in, it was a little warmer than the outside temperature, so both Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling rushed to get in—Jingyi just took his time.
It took them a little bit of time to think of what they wanted to order, but they eventually went up to the counter; Jiang Cheng paid for all of this of course (he really needed to work on not spending money on kids, he was going to be broke is this continued regularly).
When they had finally got their orders, Jingyi took it upon himself to make fun of the other two for their “basic taste”. The nephew-uncle duo had gotten the “most basic flavors in the history of flavors” according to Jingyi. According to Jiang Cheng, Jingyi could just fuck right off with his incompetence if he thought that chocolate and vanilla were “basic”, they’re the best flavors! Jingyi was just trying to be extra with his own weird-ass “Moose-Tracks” flavor or whatever the hell that was supposed to be.
They had decided to eat their desserts in the sitting area of the shop (Jiang Cheng didn’t trust the two to not make a complete mess in his car), only making their way to their next destination after they had finished.
It was about a fifteen-minute drive to the nearest aquarium, which also happened to be the more expensive one (luck just loved to fuck with Jiang Cheng, didn’t it? God, his wallet was going to be crying even more than it already was when he gets home). Jin Ling had managed to win the coin toss this second time around, yelling out in victory as he climbed into the front seat. (Now that he thought of it, Jiang Cheng’s pretty sure that the two of them riding in the front was illegal with how young they were. Oh well.)
The aquarium was probably the most exciting thing that he had done all day if Jiang Cheng were to take all things into consideration. Even though all they did was look at aquatic life that was stationed in incredibly huge glass containers with (sometimes) various other species, Jiang Cheng was also kept on his toes the whole time since he had to keep an eye on two hyperactive kids.
Both Jingyi and Jin Ling had apparently made it their mission while they were there to make Jiang Cheng have as many heart attacks as they could, and it was a competition. Their current record was 7-4 in favor of his beloved nephew. They had only been there for a fucking hour.
Luckily, Jiang Cheng was able to get them to calm down after a while—well, it was more like the sugar high they were on finally wore off. They all decided to go visit the sharks after long enough, the octopi being relatively close by as well. The two kids were absolutely enamored with the sharks in the tank, pressing their hands and faces into the glass as if they could get inside the tank and swim with them. Jiang Cheng had to pull them away numerous times, though it was funny when he saw the red spots on their faces from where their skin pressed too hard into the clear surface.
The experience with the octopi wasn’t that much different, except that a couple of them had started to climb the glass. When Jingyi had seen it, he screamed and clutched onto Jin Ling with enough momentum to knock them both onto the floor into a terrified mess. Jiang Cheng had a wonderful time hacking his lungs out from how hard he laughed.
The car pulled in front of Jin Ling’s place of residence, and Jiang Cheng took it upon himself to practically throw his nephew through the door and turn on his heel to leave, thankful that he had one less child to deal with now. He could hear Jin Ling shouting out back toward him, thanking him and telling him that he had fun, and could also feel the glare from Jin Zixuan.
Getting back in the car, he found that Jingyi was already in the front seat, probably having changed spots as he was dragging Jin Ling to his front door.
He changed the car out of park and left the driveway, making their way back to Lan Huan and Jingyi’s house for the last few hours before the former got off work and made his way back.
When they got there, Jingyi immediately started taking his gifts into the house, leaving barely any for Jiang Cheng to carry. He was fine with that, less things to put effort into.
The multitude of bags covered the entirety of the kitchen island, Jingyi rushed around to put all of his gifts in the spots he determined were the best places for them to reside. He had so many things piled up in his arms, some of them falling out as his speed picked up. He probably spent about an hour doing just that: putting everything where he wanted. Then again, there was still more stuff to put up, Jiang Cheng had just told him to sit down for a little bit and rest.
Soon after, Jiang Cheng decided that if the rumors he heard from his brother were true, Lan Huan was shit at cooking. So, he decided to try and teach Jingyi to cook instead, that way there was at least one person in the house that could make edible food.
He settled on trying to make a simple snack, something that wouldn’t last you that long, but enough to tide someone over for maybe an hour at most. Jiang Cheng asked for a piece of paper and a pen so he could write the list of ingredients down, and afterward, he asked Jingyi if he knew if they had everything before he looked for them himself.
Jingyi, being the son of a man who hadn’t attempted to cook since he caught water on fire, had no clue where barely anything was in the kitchen, sans the silverware, plates, and bowls.
Lovely. Now he was going to have to search this ginormous kitchen for ingredients that might not even be there since the owner of the house refused to try and better his terrible skill (which in all honesty made a ton of sense now that he thought of it).
Jiang Cheng went through every cabinet and drawer, quickly scanning everything in them and checking them off of the list if they were there. When he was done, he didn’t even have close to half of the list full, which meant that he was going to have to make another small trip into town to get the rest.
Jingyi forced himself into the car with him and talked about random things as they drove to a small store pretty close to the house.
Overall, though, the trip didn’t take that long as Jiang Cheng knew what he needed and he had barely any trouble finding them. He did get some pocky though for the both of them. Chocolate flavored for himself and Banana for Jingyi.
The total that he paid wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, and made his way back to the car so he could get back to cooking.
There was only one bag that he had to carry into the house when they arrived. When he was able to get all of them situated in the kitchen and prepared to use for the recipe, it was already ten minutes past. He didn’t think it would’ve taken that long.
Jingyi, the poor boy, tried his best to help Jiang Cheng. Though, he only got in the way since he didn’t have any experience in this sort of thing. Jiang Cheng just gave him small tasks; things like putting this measuring cup in the sink to clean later since they wouldn’t need to use it anymore, or putting some ingredients back in the lower cabinets that the boy could reach so they wouldn’t have to do it later after the food was done.
But, Jiang Cheng did make Jingyi watch him make the snack and quizzed him often on kitchen etiquette and rules; things that you should and shouldn’t do in a kitchen. Like, not touching the surface of a stove while it’s on, or keeping your fingers a safe distance away from a knife when using it (unless it’s absolutely unavoidable), etc.
While they (read: Jiang Cheng) were cooking, Jiang Cheng’s phone made an occasional notification sound, one that very subtly made the said man scrunch up his face in distaste. He never actually pulled out his phone, either to silence it or check for what it was, and it made Jingyi curious as to what it could’ve possibly been.
Minutes later, those thoughts were cast aside when Jiang Cheng placed a plate of Chicken Yakitori in front of him, three skewers of deliciousness sitting right in front of him waiting to be devoured. Jingyi dug right in, forgoing the proper eating manners that were expected of him in modern-day society (Jiang Cheng didn’t really care that much, though, so he didn’t reprimand him).
The food also happened to distract Jingyi from the fact that his father was going to be home in less than an hour.
Lan Huan was currently exiting his company’s main building, heading into the elevated car garage to finally head back home to his baby. All throughout the day, he couldn’t stop worrying about his son, and the possibility that he was hurt, or kidnapped, or something. It’s not that he didn’t trust Wei Wuxian’s younger brother with babysitting his son, it’s just that he doesn’t know him, and he didn’t really know how responsible the nineteen-year-old was. Of course, he must be responsible enough to take care of his own nephew on his own, though, so that thought helped Lan Huan’s consciousness.
The drive back to his house was, sadly, a relatively long one; the winding roads stretched for far longer than he could ever remember them being, and the clock seemingly never changing. Five minutes in and he had to put on music in order to distract his mind from his worries, and instead focusing on the road, his head slightly moving on the beat of the songs playing from his car.
Soon enough, he was able to pull into the driveway, and immediately parked the car when he was sitting at the curve of the gravel road. He picked up his pace, and quickly took off his coat, hanging it neatly over his left forearm as he opened his front door.
But, it was strangely quiet when he walked in, and the air was faintly permeated with the smell of food. Well, he thought it was quiet until he focused on the weird noises coming from upstairs, gradually getting closer as time passed.
Sure enough, not even two minutes later Lan Huan could hear the pounding of hurried footsteps getting closer by the second, and two voices crescendoing—one sounding suspiciously like his son… And the other voice sounded like a grown man!
Lan Huan felt his heart start to beat faster, and the fear that his son was going to get kidnapped by a random man that barged into his home kept growing bigger. Where was Wei Wuxian’s brother; did something happen to him?
He was shaken out of his thoughts when a ( really attractive ) voice sounded from the top of the stairs as his son made it to the bottom of them. “LAN JINGYI! Get back here, you little shit—don’t you dare text him!”
Jingyi looked melancholy and immediately stuck his tongue out at the other, waving a phone around—one that most definitely wasn’t his since Lan Huan hadn’t given him one yet—and turned to run away again when the man sounded as if he was starting to head down the stairs.
“Why not?! You got so many notifications from him when making food earlier, surely it must be something important!”
“Well, you’re sure to be fucking disappointed since Wei Wuxian is a little bitch and only bothers me when he has nothing better to do!” Lan Huan could literally hear the scowl on his face and could see it soon after the words were spoken when the man ( holy fuck he’s hot ) finally descended the stairs.
Wait. Does this (attractive) man know Wei Wuxian?? How?? Well, at least his earlier worries about Jingyi being kidnapped could be fully buried now. Now, if only he could find out how this man knew Lan Huan’s younger brother’s boyfriend, that would be great.
He didn’t have to wait more than thirty seconds. “But he’s your brother, right? Isn’t that what brothers are supposed to do??” Jingyi then shrieked when the man (who was apparently Wei Wuxian’s brother— wait hold on a sec is he the younger brother that he asked to watch over his kid- ) lunged at him, and honestly would have pinned the boy to the floor if Lan Huan’s adorable little son hadn’t seen him and immediately stopped playing around.
“A-Die.”
After Jingyi’s words rang out, the man that almost tackled him snapped his head over to Lan Huan, his eyes a little wide in surprise at being caught playing around.
“Hello, Jingyi; did you guys have fun today?”
The aforementioned boy’s eyes lit up, and he excitedly made his way over to Lan Huan, a small skip to his step.
“A-Die, A-Die! We had so much fun; we went to the mall, to the park, and to the aquarium—I also made a new friend!”
Lan Huan’s eyes softened, and he opened his arms in invitation for his son to barrel into him, resting his larger hands on the boy’s head, stroking back and forth as he pleased. “That’s good, Jingyi.” He had a smile on his face, and his gaze was a little unfocused as he just focused on the feeling of his son in his arms. Man, work really did a number on him today, geez—usually he wasn’t this clingy after coming back home.
A throat being cleared suddenly reminded him that there was still another person still in their presence, and stopped the ministrations on Jingyi’s head, instead resting his hands on his shoulders; eyes going over the source of noise and locking onto seemingly glowing blue eyes, instantly becoming captivated in such a look.
“As adorable as this small reunion is, I would greatly appreciate it if I could have my phone back, rascal.” The man’s gaze tore away from Lan Huan’s, fixating on his son that was still leaning against him with an eyebrow raised.
Lan Huan had honestly never been so turned on by such a minute detail in his life—what was getting into him???
Jingyi squeezed his father tighter, and reluctantly let go from around his waist, turning his head to playfully glare at the other man.
“You’re a meanie, you know that?”
“Yes, I know; a meanie that took you to three different places with your new friend today. So, suck it up and hand me my phone, brat.”
Jingyi pouted again, taking small steps toward the other man and stopping five feet in front of him with the phone being held out. The beautiful man just stepped forward and snatched the phone from the younger’s grip and scowled when Jingyi stuck his tongue out.
“Anyway,” the man said, “I better be getting back so I can get out of your way.”
He was starting to head toward the door when Lan Huan accidentally blurted out, “Why don’t you stay for dinner?” Lan Huan immediately smacked a hand over his mouth, cursing himself in his head for saying such a thing. There was no way that he was going to say yes to-
“Sure, I guess.”
What the fuck.
This only happened to people like Lan Huan in books—not in reality! He was quickly snapped out of his reverie, though, when he registered the man before him tilting his head and raising an eyebrow.
“What are we eating?” Oh right, they had to get food of some sort. That might be a problem, considering Lan Huan was an absolute failure in the kitchen.
The attractive man in his house that looked after his kid ended up making dinner for the three of them. Lan Huan’s life was in shambles, and he could barely keep standing up when he thought about the situation he was in.
Okay, that may be a little overdramatic, but whatever!
They (Lan Huan didn’t actually do anything to make the food, he just paid for the ingredients) made Black Pepper Chicken, the taste pallet slightly different than what he was used to eating because of the household he grew up in. The meal only took about an hour’s worth of time, and the result was well worth it (though it did take more time since they had to go back into town to get ingredients).
Jingyi loved it, and Lan Huan was tempted to ask for the recipe to see if he could maybe one day try to recreate it. It tasted phenomenal.
It was also during the time they were eating that Lan Huan realized that he didn’t even know the name of the man sitting across from him at his dinner table. That realization put him into a little bit of a problem, seeing as in the family he was raised in it was taboo to talk while you sat at the dinner table.
He was well aware that he could just as easily text the man later and ask, but he felt it would be too awkward seeing as after the man leaves he wasn’t required to ever come back; communication wouldn’t be necessary whatsoever. Wait, why not just offer him the job again? He could also use that time to get to know him more, that way he wouldn’t feel too much like a stranger. He would start his plan once they finished their meal.
“So, tell me more about you?” He kept his voice light and airy, wanting to seem as unaffected by the man’s presence as possible. He had stood up, and walked around the table to gather all of the dirty plates and cutlery, taking them over to the sink to be washed and cleaned of residue food.
“What, you don’t know enough already?” The voice was joking, and it came from behind Lan Huan.
“Well, considering I don’t even know your name, I would agree.” His lips twitched upward, and he gave a small huff of amusement.
“That’s surprising, considering the high probability that Wei Wuxian bemoans over me constantly.” The man’s face brightened in a dark way, taking pleasure in his brother’s misery. “Anyway, my name is Jiang Cheng. I’m also only a month younger than Wei Wuxian, so don’t fucking take that shit about me being a baby compared to him, I fucking hate it. Even A-Jie doesn’t say shit like that—she’s the oldest!”
Lan Huan stopped listening when he heard that Jiang Cheng was a month younger than Wei Wuxian. He was highly ashamed to say that he was one of the people who believed the older’s laments about his baby brother and his leaving the nest. It really made for a different picture than what reality gave. Jiang Cheng was closer to Lan Huan’s own age than he previously thought; he was 24, just three years younger than himself.
“—and my professor is an absolute jackass that won’t let me do what I’m legally required to do so if I fail my last year of law school I’m literally going to castrate him I swear to god-”
Oh right, Jiang Cheng was still talking. Lan Huan really needed to stop spacing out, it was going to bite him in the ass one day.
“So, you’re a law student?”
“Yes, and thank god it’s my last year, I would not be able to stand another class with that fucking-ugh!” Jiang Cheng let his head drop back and let out a groan, his eyes closing in obvious frustration.
Lan Huan let out a small chuckle and very quickly swallowed it when he got a glare from the man to his, now, right.
“Jiang Cheng, I have a favor to ask of you, if you don’t mind.”
“Shoot.”
“Would you mind being Jingyi’s babysitter from now on? You’re the only one he’s liked to this extent when they usually just complain to me after they leave.” Lan Huan had a sheepish look on his face and his left shoulder had risen a little bit out of embarrassment.
Jiang Chen didn’t make much noise beside him, but Lan Huan could practically hear the gears turning in his head for whatever reason.
“Sure, I’ll do it. It’ll give me a reason to skip out on anything my fuckhead of a brother wants me to do with him.” A chuckle was heard and Lan Huan could feel his heart giving out again.
God, why did he have to be so weak to good-looking people?
The two of them ended up taking about ten more minutes to clean the dishes and afterward went into the living room where they could hear Jingyi running around the room like an absolute maniac—honestly, looking at him you wouldn’t believe he was a Lan.
“Jingyi, come over here so you can say goodbye to Jiang Cheng.”
The boy’s head shot up and he quickly got to his feet and crowded around the man’s legs, hoping to restrict his movement and prevent him from leaving. “No, I don’t want you to go!”
Lan Huan saw the man roll his eyes with hidden fondness as he put his hand on Jingyi’s head, forcing him to back away. “I’m going to be coming back sooner or later, you brat.”
That alone made the boy brighten up, and he let go of Jiang Cheng’s legs in a heartbeat, instead taking to skipping around the room with a smile on his face.
Lan Huan just shook his head with a huff of amusement and turned to look at Jiang Cheng, only to find him already turned to him. The two gave a nod and headed back to the front door, Lan Huan only then realizing that he never paid the man for looking after his son.
Patting himself down to find his wallet, he pulled out double the amount of what he was originally going to pay, and blatantly refused to take back any when Jiang Cheng saw how much he was given.
“Lan Huan, I am not stealing money from you. Sixteen hundred dollars is just too much; especially just to look after your kid for about eight or so hours!” His eyes were wide, and he was trying to force most of the cash back at Lan Huan. He refused it.
“Jiang Cheng, just take it and go. I’ve told you this already, you are probably the only sitter that he’s had that he actually took a liking to. Please, just take it. It’ll make me feel a lot better for subjecting you to my son for so long, and to pay back for the groceries earlier.”
Jiang Cheng gave a sigh and reluctantly agreed. Then he glared at him as he started to walk back to his car. “Alright, but I won’t let you pull this shit again, you hear me!”
Lan Huan only laughed, “we’ll see about that!” He waved as Jiang Cheng drove off, and then braced his weight against the side of his house when the man was clearly out of sight. Turning around, he repeatedly hit his forehead, gently, on the wall when he remembered all of the things he did to embarrass himself in front of him. Man, he was terrible at this attraction thing.
He was snapped out of his moping when he heard Jingyi come up beside him with a snicker in his voice. “You know, you were pretty obvious back there A-Die. Maybe you should take a page out of Uncle’s book?”
Lan Huan then took great pleasure in sending his son off to his room for bed two hours early, happily blocking out the sound of the boy’s hysterical laughter as he ran up the stairs to his room.
Lan Huan really needed to work on this, didn’t he?