Blood River

Extra One: Bethrotal

Nie Mingjue, Courtesy Zhànfēng was one of the older disciples of his generation, even amongst his classmates.

This never bothered him much as he'd always focused on training more than socialising, until he went to Lanling when he was nine, there he saw someone he genuinely wanted to speak to, but couldn't bring himself to and kept thinking about it for years - always regretting and at times even fantasizing about having a conversation.

When he was 16, he met someone he wanted to speak to again, but he didn't feel shy or at a loss with this person, in fact he was at ease as he aproached them. This person was Lan Huan, Courtesy Xichen the hier of the Gusu Lan Sect.

Xichen was soft spoken and calm, he was strong, but his movements weren't explosive as Mingjue's own, he was mature for his age, a positive thinker and saw the good in all - those were some of the many reasons the Nie admired this young master, and hence the two hit it off immidiatly, being inseparable during those months at Gusu.

Once, during his stay at the cloud recesses, Mingjue convinced Xichen to sneak out with him.

Yet, on that day he also kept getting distracted and couldn't stop thinking of a certain someone - the one he'd met all those years ago in Lanling.

His heart felt heavy, and pounded against his ribcage, threatening to escape and he felt like there were butterflies flying around in his stomach the more he thought of the young master - Jin Ying, the third young master of the Lanling Jin sect..

The boy had caught his attention the first time they met, and the Nie hier kept seeing those blueish grey eyes whenever he closed his own hickory brown ones.

He never took initiative to speak to the younger the one week he spent on his home, yet, he felt uneasy and tense around him - he felt a need to be around him at all times, doing so under the lie his father ordered him to guard his younger brother.. he felt utterly destroyed for a few months after the conference, but eventually forgot.

Yet now, he couldn't stop thinking about that milky skin, velvet black hair and blueish grey eyes.

So, that day once he and Xichen got to a restaurant after their night hunt, he asked the younger boy about this, struggling to understand his own feelings and in need of an external opinion. "A'huan what does it mean when you can't stop thinking of someone?" He asked half-heartedly as he tossed his food around his plate with his chopsticks, head drooping lazely on his right hand as he looked down at the mistreated dish.

The younger, who ate silently until then simply faced him not saying a thing. Mingjue looked up at the younger boy and raised his eyebrow, asking a silent question.

The younger hid his mouth behind his long white sleeve, before speaking, "speaking is forbidden during dining" he said sternly, with that soft voice of his and the older rolled his eyes, looking at the painfully straight posture and decorum of the 13-year-old.

"We're not in the cloud recesses, A'huan." He said sternly, but the younger was still skeptical, giving him a stern glare.

The Lan bit his lip after a few minutes noticing the older wouldn't  budge, thinking a bit before looking at the bigger man across from him, "well... it depends... perhaps you miss this person?" He suggested and the Nie simply nodded without saying anything rendering the younger boy utterly confused - the Nie sect hier would usually converse all on his own, Xichen could smile and nod. Despite the younger's welcoming aura and personality, he grew up in the conservative Lan sect and was really dense to a lot of things, "the real world" the Nie called it.

So, Xichen was stupified by the older wanting an opinion instead of starting with 'let me teach you somethinf', most of which got him punished, but the younger found it fun to be punishd for the first time, with his new friend at that.