sun sun days

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“I finished everything I had to finish at work so nobody should call me over the weekend. I did the laundry. Fixed that broken closet hinge.” Jiang Cheng stands by the door, listing things out loud, grabbing his keys. “I also cleaned up my room. Go take whatever you need from there but I will kill you if you leave any mess.”

“Sure, sure…” he hears from the kitchen table that Wei Ying has monopolized for his current fixation. Right now it is an arm made of EVA foam, made to look like red metal. He’d finished it months before, but now it looks like he’s going for an “upgrade”, which apparently involves more foam, wires, and what looks like LED strips. “Hey, what time will you be back? Can you grab dinner on the way?”

“I won’t be back.” Jiang Cheng says, frowning slightly. “I told you earlier. I’m sleeping over. I have your camera with me, by the way.”

“Eh?” Wei Ying finally looks up from his… cutting? Whatever he’s doing. He blinks, finally registering that Jiang Cheng is carrying his duffel bag in addition to his usual big backpack. “You’re not staying to help me?”

Jiang Cheng looks unimpressed. “Do you need me to help you?”

“Uh.” Wei Ying looks down at his work, then back to his brother. “Yeah, you’re right, you’ll just slow me down.”

“Wow.” Jiang Cheng says, and goes to open the door.

“I mean it in a nice way!” Wei Ying calls after him. “Like, like-… this is not a many-hands activity! Just two hands??? You know what I mean!”

Jiang Cheng just shrugs. “Whatever. See you tomorrow, Wei Ying.”

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Jiang Cheng wakes up when something attacks him on the gut. He yelps painfully, and then groans when he feels something wet on his nose. He lets instinct guide him as he steadily but gently grabs the ball of fur that is assaulting his face – oof, it’s really heavy, no wonder its landing woke him up – and he blearily opens his eyes to squint at the creature.

“Qiqi, what the fuck.” he says, voice hoarse as he looks at the flat face of a furry, cream-and-white Persian cat. Jiang Cheng knows there are three cats in the house. He knows this one is the biggest of them.

“Oh, Qiqi! So you’re here, huh?” says a familiar voice, followed by the sound of footsteps. “C’mere, you spoiled little thing. You woke poor A-Cheng up from his nap… Don’t go jumping on people like that, not all of them are your dad…”

Jiang Cheng lets the lovely voice take the cat from him. Okay. That’s a problem solved. He closes his eyes again, grabs a plushie from somewhere – anywhere on the bed. He knows there is always a plushie within reach in Nie Huaisang’s bed. He vaguely registers that he managed to grab a big pink Kirby pillow, and he proceeds to use it to cover his face as he tries to go back to sleep.

But then he feels a weight – much heavier than a cat – settle on top of him. There’s the familiar feel of thighs bracketing his torso and someone’s hands on his chest.

Jiang Cheng removes the Kirby pillow from his face so he could look at a different kind of cat sitting on him. This one looks mostly human, save for the very long dark green hair, matching cat ears and piercing golden cat eyes. This one is wearing Jiang Cheng’s boyfriend’s pajamas.

Nie Huaisang grins a cheeky little grin down at him. “Good morning, Master~”

Whoa. He’s gotten really good at doing that voice. It sounded almost exactly like the one in the video game.

Jiang Cheng squints, and for a moment he just stares. “Hm. Make-up and wig test?” He tilts his head a bit. “What did you do different?”

“I tried a new color eyeshadow. What do you think?” Nie Huaisang answers, blinking his eyes charmingly. “This one is more shimmery…?”

“It looks nice.” Jiang Cheng says, setting the pillow aside so he can settle his hands on the other’s waist, grinning appreciatively. “You doing that for tomorrow?”

“I think so. I really like how it looks.” Nie Huaisang runs a hand through his hair then. The dark green wig looks very good. It looked very good on the photoshoot, but this time with the braids that Nie Huaisang had added to it, it looks more detailed, intricate.

“You should do that, if you want. You look perfect.”

Nie Huaisang smiles, happy to be complimented, and he leans down to press a kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. “Why, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Jiang Cheng mumbles in reply as he kisses back. He has kissed Nie Huaisang enough times with and without makeup to know that he’d have glitter on his lips after this. He doesn’t mind, much.

He feels the hands on his chest begin to fiddle with his shirt buttons.

“So… da-ge will be home late…”

Ah. Jiang Cheng knows where this is going. He smiles into the kisses, even as he takes Nie Huaisang’s hands in his and says, “Mm… no.”

“No?” Nie Huaisang sits back up.

A cute, pouty catboy on top of Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng recognizes this would be many a man’s dream.

“Aw… But why not?”

“First of all, you’re wearing the wig.” Jiang Cheng says. “We’re not risking the wig.”

He watches as Nie Huaisang huffs, because of course Nie Huaisang agrees that sex while wearing the expensive cosplay wig is a terrible idea, no matter how nice he looks with it.

“I was gonna take it off, duh?”

Then Jiang Cheng gestures to the side of the room. “Second, Qiqi is right there. That’s your niece. That’s weird.”

Nie Huaisang looks at the cat lounging on a cute cat bed, then back at Jiang Cheng. “We can make Qiqi leave! She can join her siblings outside.”

“Third, I do have to get up now and make some adjustments to your costume.”

And that’s what Jiang Cheng does, gently tapping Nie Huaisang’s thigh to tell him to get off of him, as he finally sits up. Nie Huaisang looks miffed but he does move aside.

“Adjustments?” Nie Huaisang blinks as he leans back on his stack of pillows and plushies – still careful with the wig on. “What adjustments? The costume’s great, it’s fine. Fits me perfectly!”

Jiang Cheng stands up from the too-soft bed, and walks towards the ensemble outfit hanging on Nie Huaisang’s clothes rack. It’s not even a lot of outfit. The top is tiny, the pants don’t even cover both legs, and the gloves are… well, they’re pretty normal gloves at least. The cat tail is there too, with a cute yellow ribbon close to the tip.

“Sure, it was great in the photoshoot.” he says, as he examines the costume top, nitpicking at some spots. “But you’ll be moving around and walking all day tomorrow. I have to reinforce some parts. Can’t have it fall apart on you now, yeah?”

“Oh… Okay.” Nie Huaisang nods, seeing Jiang Cheng’s point. That doesn’t stop him from whining, though. “Can’t you do that later? Do me first?”

“Nah. I’d want to sleep afterwards if we do that now.” Jiang Cheng chuckles, as he retrieves the ensemble from the hanger.

He walks over to Nie Huaisang’s crafting table, where the sewing machine has been waiting for him after an afternoon of procrastinating and just power napping on his boyfriend’s bed. He knows he really should have done this earlier, but Nie Huaisang was busy being on a video call for work when he arrived, and Jiang Cheng was reminded of how little sleep he got the night before. So he thought he’d get some sleep hours in…

He took today off from work to prepare for an anime convention, because he’s a nerd. Plus an extra day because he didn’t want a Monday to kill the good vibes. Tuesday can do that. If they ask, he’ll claim it’s for work-life balance.

“This, first.” He tells Nie Huaisang. “You, later. Promise.”

“Alright, fine…”

He hears rather than sees Nie Huaisang get off the bed as well, probably sulking. But that’s fine. This is for his own good. Jiang Cheng refuses to have his boyfriend parading around tomorrow in the convention with a wardrobe malfunction.

A few moments later, just as Jiang Cheng is taking apart the zip-up crop top, Nie Huaisang emerges from his bathroom. No wig, contacts or makeup. Just him and his big round glasses and wavy shoulder length brown hair. He pulls up a chair to join Jiang Cheng on the crafting table.

“So, later, do you want me to wear-”

“No wig. You put that expensive as hell wig away properly.”

“I was gonna say the cat ears!” Nie Huaisang pokes him, and now without the makeup, Jiang Cheng can see him blush. “I bought that wig, no way I’m ruining it…”

“Oh. Yeah, sure.” Jiang Cheng shrugs. He makes sure to send Nie Huaisang a quick smile. “You’re cute with cat ears.”

“I know, but am I sexy with cat ears?”

“You’re sexy naked.”

Nie Huaisang groans in exasperation, as he burrows his head on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. Jiang Cheng takes this in stride and simply keeps working on the other’s costume.

“That’s a compliment.” Jiang Cheng says. “It means I’m into you with or without the cat ears. Or bunny ears. Or elf ears. Whatever other ears you’ve put on. Even the fluffy cuffs. Or that one lace thing-”

“Okay, stop listing everything I’ve tried on for you, please-”

A shrug. “I enjoyed all of them, is my point.”

“You did, huh…” Nie Huaisang sighs. “Y’know, I think da-ge had the impression that I got into spicy nerd shit because you’re into it? But you’re actually the most vanilla man I know… You really just let me do whatever…”

Jiang Cheng lets out a curious hum. He’d never really thought to describe his preferences as vanilla. Nie Huaisang is into the cute costumes and roleplay. Jiang Cheng is into Nie Huaisang, simple. If that’s what vanilla means, then sure, maybe he is.

“So… do you think that’s weird or what…?” Jiang Cheng asks, trying to see where they’re going here.

“No, I’m just saying. It’s kinda funny it wraps back around to being romantic, I think. And I love you anyway.” Nie Huaisang says, sounding so miserable, like he can’t believe he’s in this relationship. Jiang Cheng takes that as a compliment.

Hey, he might not request for the cat ears, but if Nie Huaisang comes on to him with cat ears, then Jiang Cheng is now into cat ears. It’s that simple. No one can say that he takes his boyfriend’s efforts for granted.

Jiang Cheng is quite sure this is a metaphor for something, but he is also sewing right now, so he resolves to just think about it later. Or not at all until the next time it comes up. Whatever. Also, hearing ‘vanilla’ just makes him want some ice cream, really.

“Love you too.” is all he says, then he lifts his shoulder, the one with Nie Huaisang’s head on it, to give him a little nudge. “Hey, you wanna help me out here? Finish this sooner?”

“Oh! Sure. What are we doing again?” Nie Huaisang says, finally properly looking at what Jiang Cheng is working on. “Oh, new zipper. Yeah, that other one was terrible. Say, for the pants, the one with the short leg kept bunching up during the shoot…?”

Jiang Cheng thinks about it. “Might be the elastic. You go get the seam ripper, we can adjust it, see what works.”

“Got it.” Nie Huaisang grabs the pants – or like, half pants. Half pants, half shorts? Whatever. One of the pant legs is cut off high on the thigh like short shorts. Because character design. It’s fine. Nie Huaisang has nice legs. Jiang Cheng said so.

Then a cat hops on the table, this time it’s a very chunky calico bobtail.

“Oh, c’mon, we’re working on black fabric…” Jiang Cheng shakes his head as he moves the costume out of reach of the cat.

Nie Huaisang smiles at his big brother’s chunkiest child. “Hi, Mimi. What’s up, girl?”

Mimi the cat just looks at them, before spotting the small jar of pins among their craft stuff. She paws at it.

Jiang Cheng frowns. “Mimi… no.”

Mimi, like a true cat, doesn’t give a fuck – and tries to push the jar off the table. Jiang Cheng just curses and catches the item before it falls on the floor.

“Okay, we love you, but that’s very rude. It’s time-out for you, kid.” Nie Huaisang says, picking up the chunky cat and carrying her out. “Hey, where is your brother? Jiji?”

Jiang Cheng shakes his head. He is a dog person. Unfortunately for him, Nie Mingjue is a cat person, and the man’s three very big cats usually either totally hate Jiang Cheng, or totally love Jiang Cheng, there is no in between.

Nie Huaisang returns soon enough, tapping on his phone. “Hey, Wei Ying just posted! This photo is so cute, A-Cheng… I haven’t seen this one before…” He takes his seat again beside his boyfriend, and shows him the social media post on his phone screen.

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Attached to the post is a photo of Wei Ying and Nie Huaisang in cosplay.

Wei Ying’s Specter is impressively accurate, with his hip sci-fi bounty hunter look, the red scarf, leather jacket, torn pants and prop blaster in its holster. He looks good with mismatched blue-and-gray eyes, long carefully-styled hair – and of course the sleek red metal arm that Jiang Cheng knows his brother took great pains to make. (And Jiang Cheng also took great pains to add light-up effects to it during editing.)

Nie Huaisang’s K1-T, nicknamed “Kitty” in-story and by the fandom, has the long dark green hair, cat ears and tail, golden eyes and the – body-fit all-black crop top, tight pants, and above-the-elbow gloves ensemble. (The costume that Jiang Cheng is currently working on.)

They are both a very good fit for the characters, but the photo is of them out of character, both smiling and throwing up peace signs at the camera.

They’re going to a big convention tomorrow as these characters. With those engagement numbers, Jiang Cheng already knows he’s in for a long day following his boyfriend and his brother around, and taking photos of them with their fans.

“Ah. This is one of the outtakes, while we were waiting.”

“Hmm… Hey, I think we ignored your brother for too long?”

“What?”

“Check the chat.”

Jiang Cheng checks the group chat, and he realizes that they had missed quite a lot of messages while he was napping and Nie Huaisang was working.

Nie Huaisang laughs, reading the messages.

Jiang Cheng takes out his own phone to finally reply.

Jiang Cheng sighs “Alright, let’s set an alarm for waking my idiot brother up.”

“Maybe we get him a coffee on the way.” Nie Huaisang adds, as he taps on his phone. “He probably won’t sleep. Arm looks cool, though.”

“It’s really fucking cool, yeah.”

“That’s what engineering degrees are for, I guess.”

“Mm-hm.”

Then they get back to work.

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Nie Mingjue drives them to the convention, because while Wei Ying’s Patreon can buy him a good camera for cosplay shoots and an improved setup for streaming, it cannot buy them a car.

They are three twenty-something nerds with expensive hobbies. Jiang Cheng’s IT job, Nie Huaisang’s event coordinating gigs and Wei Ying’s freelancing can only get them so far.

It’ll be fine, Jiang Cheng thinks. He’s saving up for that car. He’s the only one with a salary that might allow for the possibility of it anyway.

“Hey, Jiang Cheng.” Nie Mingjue calls from the driver’s seat. “You don’t let any pervert near my brother today, you hear me?”

“Yes, Mingjue-ge.” Jiang Cheng answers, sitting on the backseat with Nie Huaisang comfy on his side. “I’ll stay alert.”

Nie Mingjue then turns to Wei Ying on the passenger seat. He has been quiet this whole time.

“You too, Wei Ying.” Nie Mingjue prompts.

“Ah… Of course I’ll look after A-Sang! But they’ll probably want me to touch him today, Mingjue-ge.” Wei Ying laughs, because Wei Ying is insane. He has not slept. But his new prop gun works, and it does glow. So maybe that’s a win. For him. “Mine and A-Sang’s characters have a lot of shippers, you see. We even won a poll! And our spicy photoshoot is like, my new bestseller!”

“I did not consent to knowing any of this.” Nie Mingjue says.

At least these days, Nie Mingjue has mostly stopped glaring at Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying like they’re the ones who corrupted his precious little A-Sang to post photos of himself online, in all sorts of revealing costumes, in various compromising positions with his boyfriend’s brother, who is also in questionable costumes.

It’s the other way around, really, if Jiang Cheng thinks about it.

After all, it was Nie Huaisang, back in high school, who introduced the brothers to all those BL manga and games that Wei Ying is now obsessed over.

They really had no business reading all those as young as they were, but that’s just how it is.

And it’s not so bad. Wei Ying now has quite the following, streaming his games and doing his cosplay. He does collabs with lots of other cosplayers and gamers in the space, and he enjoys all of it.

Nie Huaisang doesn’t cosplay as often, and usually only gets convinced to do it whenever Wei Ying asks. He doesn’t really promote himself as a cosplayer, staying pretty casual about it. He’s mostly content to blog about his latest favorite shoujo and BL series, write fanfiction and draw cute fanart.

Jiang Cheng helps with their costumes, just because he knows how to sew. He is a nerd like the other two, and he occasionally enjoys the same games and series they do, but his own fandom account is that of a faceless Gunpla builder. His posts are mostly his works in progress, and cool photos of his latest finished builds.

And yes, he does take the photos of his brother and his boyfriend cosplaying characters in various “spicy” situations. Most people will find that weird. Jiang Cheng prefers to think that he is simply very professional. He does get a cut of the income, which is nice, because if he’s gonna bear with the two idiots giggling and gushing over their ship all day during a shoot, it’s only fair that he be compensated so he can buy himself some new model kits too. For his mental health.

Nie Mingjue turns to look at his brother through the rearview. “Nie Huaisang. If anyone touches you inappropriately, including these ones, you know what to do-”

Nie Huaisang sighs. “Yes, da-ge. Knee them in the balls. Then I’ll call you, so you can murder them, and drive me home. I know.”

“Good.”

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Jiang Cheng spends majority of his time trailing after Wei Ying and Nie Huaisang around the convention, as they get constantly surrounded, greeted and fawned over by fans of their work.

It’s mostly Wei Ying, with his shiny glowing metal arm and impressive prop blaster. Even people who didn’t know who he was stopped to just admire his work. He’s the popular one anyway, so he’s more used to people like this. Jiang Cheng doesn’t have to worry as much about him.

But Nie Huaisang’s cute space catboy is also eye-catching, and people are quick to request him to join them when they ask to take photos of Wei Ying, so Nie Huaisang also spends plenty of time smiling at cameras and thanking fans for their lovely comments.

Thankfully, there seems to be an unspoken protocol that Kitty goes straight to Specter’s arms when people ask to take photos of them both. This is not surprising – most of the fans ship the two characters together, so they’re happy to see the two cosplayers all comfy and close to each other for the cameras.

So that’s one less thing to worry about for Jiang Cheng. At least the two are keeping each other safe and comfortable just by virtue of the buddy system.

By early afternoon, Jiang Cheng has lost count of how many cameras and phones he has accepted from strangers that day, to take photos of them with his two companions. At least most of them are nice and grateful. They better be – Jiang Cheng is a good photographer, even with the cheap phones.

It’s after one of these pictorials, after Jiang Cheng has used someone’s phone to take a photo of a group of girl friends with Spec and Kitty, when one of the girls asks if she can take a photo of just the two cosplayers, gesturing to her own digital camera.

“If it’s not too much, can you… can you do that moment in one of the cut scenes?” the girl asks, to the encouragement of her friends around her.

Jiang Cheng is patient enough to just watch this unfold. The girls are polite, and both Wei Ying and Nie Huaisang look curious about the request.

“Which cut scene is it?” Wei Ying asks. One of the girls shows them a clip on their phone. Both he and Nie Huaisang smile and nod when as they watch. “Oh, that one! That’s a good one.”

“Aw… I cried at that part…” Nie Huaisang says, and majority of the girls agree with him.

Wei Ying places a hand on Nie Huaisang’s back. “Are you good with doing that, A-Sang?”

Nie Huaisang nods as he faces his friend. “Sure, sure. It’s great! Okay, let me get in the mood…”

Jiang Cheng is very tempted to cover his ears when the group of girls start squealing, as they watch Specter pull Kitty close by the waist, almost no space between them. Kitty wraps his arms around the other’s neck, and they both lean forward so their foreheads are touching.

Ah. That one. Jiang Cheng also liked that scene. Nie Huaisang did cry at that part. Jiang Cheng remembers patting his head and telling him that he is a crybaby.

The two hold the pose long enough for all the girls to take pictures, specially the one with the fancy camera. Jiang Cheng also agrees that they’re doing really well – so he brings out Wei Ying’s cosplay camera and takes a few shots himself.

When they finally break apart, they are greeted by compliments and thanks from the group of girls.

“No problem! It’s a good scene!” Wei Ying says. Nie Huaisang is tucked to his side, mouthing “Thanks!” at the others still throwing compliments their way.

“Xian-ge, you two always look so good together… Your chemistry is amazing!” one of the girls say, clapping her hands.

Her friend beside her nods. “You’re so comfortable, I can’t even do these scenes when I cosplay, and I do it with my boyfriend…”

A gasp. “Oh! Could you be-…? Are you two an actual couple?!”

Cue more squeals.

Of course, Wei Ying takes this opportunity to get into his public persona, hand flying to his chest as he shakes his head. “Oh, my lovely, your Xian-ge can’t belong to anyone! I belong to all of you~”

And yet even more squeals – “Aw, Xian-geeee!”

“A-Sang is my very best friend, since high school. And he is in a lovely relationship. In fact, they’re my favorite couple!”

Nie Huaisang blinks, and then nods shyly. “O-oh. Yes! Actually, he’s right there! He’s been looking out for me the whole day.” Nie Huaisang waves happily past the girls, and at Jiang Cheng. “There he is, my A-Cheng!”

And then there are a bunch of eyes on Jiang Cheng, all of a sudden. He is not quite ready for all the girls to look at him. But Nie Huaisang is waving at him, looking proud and sweet and cute, his cat tail swinging adorably. So Jiang Cheng just… waves back, and awkwardly nods in acknowledgement at the girls looking at him.

Oh, the girls are looking.

And. Okay, he is not dressed as impressively as his two companions. Sure. He is wearing a black shirt with a cool Gundam print on it, jeans, a big backpack, and a camera hanging from his neck. His longish hair is in a small ponytail at the back of his head. His only accessories are some silver piercings on his ears. He is dressed like your standard nerd going to a convention to make some questionable financial decisions. Which is just what he plans to do after being a chaperone.

The girls look back towards his boyfriend who is dressed as a cute sexy android catboy, and at his brother dressed as a hotshot space bounty hunter with a cool arm and a gun that glows.

Then they look back at him, as if trying to make sense of things.

Okay, maybe Jiang Cheng is starting to get offended by this reaction.

Until-

“Wait.” he hears one of the girls whisper to her friend. “He is kinda hot too, isn’t he?”

“I mean-… Yeah. Like, now that I’m looking… whoa.”

Huh. Jiang Cheng squints, and at a loss of anything else to do, he remembers that he is still holding a phone that doesn’t belong to him.

“Uh, whose phone is this?” he asks the crowd of girls.

“Oh! That’s mine!” One of them says, stepping forward and taking the phone that he’s been holding out. “Th-Thank you, Mr. Photographer.”

“No problem.”

For some reason, the girl is still looking at him, and is blushing. “U-Um… So-… Can I… take a photo with you too?”

Jiang Cheng blinks. The answer comes to him easily. “No.”

“Oh. Okay, then, thank you!” she squeaks, and hides behind her friends.

Hm. Jiang Cheng didn’t mean to scare her. But in his defense, things were getting weird. So he just looks past the whispering and giggling girls to call out to his two companions.

“Hey. You two done?”

“Yep! I think we are!” Wei Ying says, nudging Nie Huaisang with him to regroup with Jiang Cheng.

Nie Huaisang transfers to Jiang Cheng’s side, waving pleasantly at the girls as Jiang Cheng leads him off. Wei Ying stays just a few steps behind to throw out some more flirty pick-up lines to his fans, who all get distracted and squeal at him again.

“That was weird.” Jiang Cheng tells Nie Huaisang, who clings to his arm. “Right?”

“No, I think it’s just normal to want to take a photo with you, ‘cause you’re so handsome.” Nie Huaisang says, grinning up at him. “And like, we keep telling you, you should join us too! You’ll look so good as Edge, A-Cheng. You can steal me from Specter.”

“Eh. No.”

“What about… um… Oh! Aero? The rich villain guy. You can steal me from Specter!”

“I thought you ship Kitty with Specter? Why do you wanna be stolen so bad?”

“I dunno. Getting kidnapped sounds hot? Kitty is so lucky…”

Jiang Cheng notes some guys giving him a suspicious look as they walk through the convention halls like this. Jiang Cheng couldn’t really blame them. It’s not everyday they see a nerd in a Gundam shirt with a sexy catboy clinging to his arm.

“Still no.” he says. “Anyway. I don’t get it. I wasn’t in cosplay or anything. Why would those girls wanna take a photo with me?”

Wei Ying catches up to them, taking Jiang Cheng’s other side, draping an arm across his brother’s shoulders. “But you’re famous builder @j-cheng, aren’t you? Your Gunpla builds are amazing! So detailed! What if they were fans of your work?”

“Stop.” Jiang Cheng scoffs. “In speaking of builds. I still gotta check the Bandai booth. You two had enough of your fans yet?”

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Wei Ying splits up with them, saying he needs to line up for some artist’s new fancomic release, and he’ll be wasting time if he goes to change, so he’ll just go in costume.

Jiang Cheng waits for Nie Huaisang to change into casual clothes. He doesn’t take too long – he wasn’t wearing much in the first place, and the bulkiest part of his cosplay is the very long wig.

Soon enough, Jiang Cheng has his boyfriend back. Nie Huaisang in an oversized Pokemon-themed hoodie, leggings and comfy shoes. He has cute clips in his hair, and he’s back in glasses.

“So what are you getting at the Bandai booth?” Nie Huaisang asks, swinging their linked hands back and forth as they head to their destination.

“I really don’t have anything specific, I was thinking I’ll just check out what they have.” Jiang Cheng shrugs. “Maybe see if they have some MGs on sale.”

“Oh! Maybe they have a sale on the re-releases! The Buster has a new MG, didn’t you miss that one, before? You should get it! That big gun is so cool…”

See, this is why Jiang Cheng is in love with Nie Huaisang. Because as much as the guys is usually focused on crying over BL ships and writing smutty fanfiction of said ships, he is always happy to hold Jiang Cheng’s hand while Jiang Cheng buys cool model kits.

And sure, he’s also kind of an enabler of questionable financial decisions, but that’s neither here nor there.

Jiang Cheng does get the Master Grade Buster Gundam. For the big gun. Because Nie Huaisang is right, the big gun is so cool. There’s also three other kits that he will try to justify as reasonable purchases later because hey, they were on sale! Then he gets a Pokemon thing for Nie Huaisang, as a treat. That one he justifies by telling himself he’s being a good boyfriend.

“For me?!” Nie Huaisang gasps, when Jiang Cheng hands him the Sprigatito model kit. It’s green. It’s a cat. Nie Huaisang loves it. Nie Huaisang looks happy. See, Jiang Cheng is a good boyfriend.

Jiang Cheng simply drops a quick kiss to the other’s forehead. “You wanna check out some Sanrio? If I stay here any longer I will buy more shit and we will never have a car.”

Nie Huaisang laughs, and lets Jiang Cheng lead him to Sanrio.

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Nie Huaisang buys Badtz-Maru and Keroppi bracelets from the Sanrio booth for himself and Jiang Cheng. From there they just go around the convention, until they both tap out at pretty much the same time and decide to call it a day.

They hang out on a nearby cafe while they wait for Wei Ying to return victorious with his comics. They order iced coffee and pastries, as Jiang Cheng goes over the photos he took with Wei Ying’s camera, and Nie Huaisang scrolls through his social media, smiling as he sees posts and photos from the people they’ve met today.

Then he sees them, the comments on Wei Ying’s post from yesterday, that he missed while he and Jiang Cheng were busy with his costume and then with… well, each other.

Some were indeed asking if they are an “irl couple”, if they were dating, those other things… And then there’s some newer replies, just from earlier today, saying that @wwx0716 and @huaisang are just good friends and Nie Huaisang already has a boyfriend. This is true, they claimed. Nie Huaisang told them himself!

Well… They are telling the truth, at least.

“A-Cheng…” Nie Huaisang starts, scooting closer to his boyfriend on their booth. “Can I take a photo with you?”

Jiang Cheng looks up from the camera. The answer comes easily to him this time as well. “Sure.”

It just feels right, Nie Huaisang thinks, for Jiang Cheng to pull him closer, and grin just slightly at the camera as Nie Huaisang takes their selfie.

Nie Huaisang smiles as he looks at his phone. “Ah… so handsome. Should I do a boyfriend reveal?”

Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow. “Why?”

He shrugs. “I dunno. My boyfriend is cool? I wanna show him off?”

Jiang Cheng scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he takes one look at Nie Huaisang’s big hazel eyes behind those big round glasses… and he’s done for.

“Alright. Take a new photo, for your reveal. I didn’t like that last one very much.”

Nie Huaisang blinks, but obliges him easily enough. He leans into Jiang Cheng again, lets Jiang Cheng settle an arm around him as he raises the phone to take another selfie.

Just as he taps the “Capture” button, Jiang Cheng tilts his head and kisses his cheek. That’s the shot that Nie Huaisang gets.

“A-Cheng…?” Nie Huaisang looks at him, cheeks pink.

Jiang Cheng shrugs as he leans back again, returning to fiddling with their camera. “There. You can go and show off your boyfriend now.”

“I will do that, then.” Nie Huaisang says, grinning happily. He goes back to his phone, and starts making his post.

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Nie Mingjue picks them up from the convention, because he is a hero among men.

Wei Ying, surprisingly, managed to stay awake. Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng knows he will probably crash first thing when he gets home. But for now they let him talk their ears off about how it was so nice to meet one of his favorite artists, and get his new fancomic signed.

“He really was so cool! He must be shy, though, wearing a mask like that, but I’m sure he must be handsome. His voice sounded so nice, you know?”

“Well, with the kind of stuff he releases, I won’t blame him for wanting to remain anonymous, Wei-xiong…” Nie Huaisang says, watching Jiang Cheng beside him flip through the fancomic that Wei Ying lined up to get. “Everyone knows his works now too. Maybe he feels more secure being mysterious.”

“He recognized me, can you believe it?” Wei Ying gushes. All of his companions hold back on saying that he is kinda famous so they can believe it. “He said he’s a fan of my cosplay! He told me when he works on his comics, he uses my cosplay photos as inspiration!”

Jiang Cheng closes the comic in his hands, looking mildly horrified. He risks a glance back at the very racy cover art featuring one of the characters his brother has recently cosplayed, and the very clear “18+” icon on the corner.

Jiang Cheng coughs. “He-… He said that? Like literally? That you… inspire… his stuff?”

Wei Ying sighs dreamily. “Yeah. What an honor, right?”

Jiang Cheng says, “Wei Ying, the guy draws porn.”

“Mm-hm, and his art style is really- Oh. Oh.”

Nie Huaisang giggles, mumbling, “I can’t believe he actually told you…”

“What- Wait. A-Sang, why are you laughing? What do you know?!” Wei Ying asks, whirling around from the passenger seat to look at his laughing friend in the back. “Wait, you’re an artist too! Do you know who he is?!”

Nie Huaisang hides on Jiang Cheng’s arm to laugh there instead.

“A-Sang.” Nie Mingjue calls. “Are you guys talking about who I think you’re talking about?”

“Yes, da-ge-”

Wei Ying turns to their designated driver in shock. “Mingjue-ge, you know too?! You know Wangji-xiong?”

“Hmm… I wish I didn’t.”

“What does that mean?!”

“Please take this away from me.” Jiang Cheng passes the comic back to the front of the car, to return it to Wei Ying.

The art is phenomenal. Jiang Cheng never wants to see it again. He holds his boyfriend in his arms for moral support. For himself, mostly. Nie Huaisang seems to be enjoying all this, at least. Good for him.

“What-… What do I-… What does it mean, then-…?” Wei Ying whines, brain fully struggling. “Should I? Should I message him? Hello, I love your art. What’s up? Are you single?”

Nie Mingjue catches a glimpse of the cover.

“What the hell.” he says, shaking his head. “You nerds are weirdos. All of you.”

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fin.