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Ah... that's a good idea.

[ Shang Qinghua takes the brush and hesitantly puts the tip of it to one of Huaisang's nails. When it doesn't spill a bunch of polish this time, he looks visibly relieved, and starts painting with a bit more confidence.

This time the four fingers come out much more reasonably. The amount of polish among them is a bit uneven, but the precision muscle control that cultivators have means that Shang Qinghua, when he's not trying to contain an overwhelming amount of the liquid, can precisely and neatly keep it almost entirely off of Nie Huaisang's skin.

Once he's done with those, he settles back slightly, unable to hide the bit of triumph starting to make its way into his expression. ]

There. That's much better.

[ Sure, the muscle control is somewhat cheating, but still! Not bad for a second try! ]

[Huaisang is actually kind of impressed by Qinghua's careful control on the second hand. Maybe he will ask for help with this in the future.

Once both hands are done, he carefully tilts his right hand to see if it's going to drip. It seems safe, so he just tilts it as little as possible, offering the thumb.

Even though it's a best-effort result, Huaisang's simply enjoying being pampered a bit like this.]

[ Shang Qinghua immediately obliges, this time following Nie Huaisang's advice and wiping the excess off the brush before painting the thumb. It comes out done just as well as the fingers on his left hand. ]

This is a nice shade of blue.

[ He mentions it casually, not thinking too much about the color choice. ]

Thank you. [Huaisang blows at his nails once they're painted, admiring the color even if it is rather messy.] My clan color is silver, but I find a little bit of blue suits well with that aesthetic.

Will you do my toes next?

Silver and blue, I see.

[ He nods absentmindedly, then pauses. ]

Your toes? Ah, yes, I can do that.

[ But first, he finishes off Nie Huaisang's left hand with the thumb. ]

[Once his hands are finished, Huaisang shifts around carefully, making sure not to bump his hands against anything. This process seems very impractical, but beauty often is. Huaisang finds such thing soothing. He could braid his hair for the sole purpose of keeping it from his face, but instead he adds intricate designs because it pleases him and wears a loose lock of hair on either side of his face anyway, undoing the practical purpose of the thing. He rests his feet lightly on Qinghua's lap, draping his arms over his knees to keep them relatively safe. Resting his chin on one of those arms, he watches his friend with a smile.]

[ Shang Qinghua doesn't notice that smile. The toes take more concentration since the nails are smaller, so he spends the entire time with his gaze trained on them. It's a strange feeling to have to neither lean in close (thank you, enhanced cultivator eyesight!) nor concentrate to hold his arm steady (thank you, precision cultivator muscle control!) to do a much better job of this than would have been possible even with either or both of those in his previous life.

Finally he caps the nail polish and looks up, and that's when he finally notices. He finds a bit of heat rising in his face as his gaze flicks to those lips for an instant, but he tries to push that down and put on a natural smile in response. ]

How does that look?

[Huaisang has a bit of an oral fixation and a noticeable habit of licking his lips, so the moment Qinghua glances at his lips, Huaisang subconsciously licks them. Then he grins, instinctively reflecting a smile with more smiles.] I love it. Thank you.

[He can't move his feet yet, so he wiggles them lightly in Qinghua's lap, continuing to watch him with a fond smile.] How long does it take to dry?

[ That lick did not help whatever Shang Qinghua was trying to avoid. Which... he's not entirely sure what it was. But it didn't help either way!

The wiggle distracts his attention back downwards, and for a moment he's worried that it might smudge. ]

Ah... a few minutes?

[ He looks at the label again. ]

That's all it says. But your fingers dried rather quickly, didn't they?

Did they? [Huaisang wiggles his fingers. They're shiny, but he can't tell whether the shine is wetness or lacquer.] How do I tell? I don't want to mess it up.

I...

[ ... ]

I have no idea. I haven't ever done this before.

[ Is there a way to tell besides touching them? He's never had to figure this out! ]

Perhaps... wait a little while longer, just in case? If it says "a few minutes", surely it shouldn't take that long...

All right.

[Huaisang very carefully taps the corner of one finger with his other finger. The lacquer feels... soft, but it doesn't smudge.] I think it's partly dried. Probably a good idea to be careful a while longer.

[He wiggles his toes in Qinghua's lap again.] Do you want me to do yours?

[ He tightens the cap on the bottle and puts it to the side, then looks back at Nie Huaisang's face. ]

Ah, that's alright. I think it suits you better than me.

[ And it would feel weird if he wore nail polish? It still feels very strange that a man would want to wear it, but it's not like it really existed in the time period that most cultivator stories are set in. So it's not like they have a reason to think it's a feminine thing, but Airplane can't really get over that himself. Sort of like the dress...

He finds his eyes trailing down along Nie Huaisang's body, taking another look at that dress. He isn't sure whether he means to continue on to the toenails or look back up somewhere else, but his gaze stalls out at around the bottom hem resting just over Nie Huaisang's knees.

For a cultivator, showing so much bare leg is rather risque, isn't it? What sort of life did he lead that this sort of thing doesn't bother him?! And yet, what does it say about Shang Qinghua that he isn't looking away, but putting a hand on the back of one of those legs, and leaning in to kiss the skin peeking out right near the hem...

He doesn't know why he's doing it. Maybe impulse, or curiosity, or testing something for himself. The warmth of moonlacing blooms on his lips and he flushes in time with it. Even removing so many of the other factors, the other set of lips and the overwhelming warmth and whatever the fuck was happening because it was Cordis...

He still enjoys kissing. He enjoys kissing Nie Huaisang.

The kiss doesn't linger for too long, and soon he pulls back slightly. He doesn't know where to look, pretty sure he'll die of embarrassment if he meets Nie Huaisang's gaze now, so he keeps his focus on the leg he just kissed instead. He leans back a little more, and that's when he feels a strange, slight tug down near his stomach.

Shang Qinghua looks down to find four small, shiny blue spots on his robes, and that several of Nie Huaisang's nails now have smudges in the previously-smooth polish. ]

Ah--!

[ His embarrassment vanishes immediately, replaced with alarm, and he just barely manages to stop himself from blurting out a fuck! ]

[Huaisang is quick to pick up on fashion trends, and after the first week of wearing skirts--mostly during Cordis--he'd noticed that many of the people who wore skirts above the knee had hairless legs. He'd asked about it and investigated, and then gone straight to a spa and gotten his legs waxed. It was an awful process, but he absolutely loved the results.

His ongoing transformation was a scandal to the other cultivators (mostly the Twin Jades, Huaisang was pretty sure), but Huaisang was thrilled with all his new freedoms here, and very quickly going native.

His soft smile widens into a grin as Qinghua's attention becomes fixated on his legs like that. It's nice to have his legs appreciated, and he's also glad to have Qinghua admiring him. He'd been a little unsure after their last encounter whether Qinghua actually liked and desired him or simply was glad to have someone to kiss.

Staying still as he watches his friend, Huaisang's eyes only widen as he draws back and they both realize the mistake. Sitting up, he sets his feet on the floor and twists at the waist so he can put a gentle hand flat on Qinghua's chest, then uses the other to draw a blank talisman paper from his sleeve and to sketch a quick sigil with his fingers. It's a spell he learned in Gusu, basic cultivator tricks to clean fabric. Essential in a clan of white and light blue robes, and highly prized for Huaisang. The polish wicks out of the fabric and collects into the center of the talisman, staining the paper. He crumples it up, smiling as he inspects the flawless fabric left behind.] I'll go get the nail polish remover.

That...

[ That was so convenient! Fuck, why didn't he think of something like that! Do you know how much easier it would have been to handle Bai Zhan Peak robes if a single talisman was enough to clean them? Do you have any idea how many hours he spent scrubbing blood and dirt out of them?!

Then again, he left a lot of tedious things in his novel! Transportation over land on horses and in carriages, having to cart supplies around by hand, no easy way to fix clothes... and of course, all of those fell to An Ding Peak to handle.

No, no, now wasn't the time to dwell on all that... ]

Thank you.

You're welcome. [Pleased with himself, Huaisang leans in and kisses Qinghua's cheek, then gets to his feet and fetches the nail polish remover and some cotton pads, as the person in the shop had recommended.] Supposedly you can use this liquid to remove the lacquer. Then we can start again.

[Settling beside him once more, Huaisang puts his feet back in Qinghua's lap, happy to have reasons to be pampered a little longer.]

[ Shang Qinghua eyes the two items, wary and nervous, then glances back up towards Nie Huaisang. ]

I, ah. Do you have an idea how it works? I've never used it, and I...

[ He already messed up before, with the nail polish the first time. His confidence in his ability to figure out how this works is... rather low right now. ]

[Huaisang shakes his head.] I don't know anything. I can't do it--it might remove the polish from my fingernails and then we'd have to start all over.

[He can try to help with the confidence, though. Crooking a finger to beckon Qinghua to lean in, he leans forward to kiss him.]

[ Shang Qinghua leans in and accepts the kiss, and a moment later, leans in for another before pulling back again.

This is still strange to him, something where he doesn't entirely understand himself and has no experience to go off of... but the kissing is nice. He's accepted that he enjoys the kissing.

He sits back up straight with a soft sigh. ]

I suppose... since there isn't much risk of getting my robes dirty, I might as well try...

[ He takes the cotton pads and the nail polish remover and stares at the two for several seconds.

How is this supposed to work? He can't just stick the cotton into the bottle; it would get stuck! But maybe if...

He unscrews the cap from the nail polish remover, then holds the cotton pad on top. After a moment he slowly tips it, nervously righting it almost immediately the moment the liquid starts to soak into the pad. He takes it off to inspect it, furrows his brow, then repeats the process, holding it slightly longer.

Then he caps the nail polish remover and looks back and Nie Huaisang's toes. ]

Ah, well let's see if this is right.

[ He hesitantly starts to dab it on one of the toes that he messed up before. ]

Edited 2020-03-30 04:34 (UTC)

[Huaisang smiles at the first kiss, which then widens into a grin at the second kiss, toes wiggling with pleasure.

Happy in his friend's company, he just rests his head on his arms while he watches Qinghua work. He doesn't offer help, letting Qinghua figure it out on his own. Huaisang doesn't know any better, and Qinghua's problem-solving skills are just fine.

His fingernails seem to be dried now, the varnish feeling smooth and hard, so he lightly draws his fingers through Qinghua's bangs, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear.] You're cute when you're focusing.

[ The work is slow going, between Shang Qinghua not using enough nail polish remover and him blotting instead of rubbing, but bit by bit he gets it off the toes in question.

He pauses when he feels the fingers run through his hair, but the compliment has him lifting his gaze suddenly. ]

I--ah--thank you.

[ There's an embarrassed but slightly awkward look on his face at that before he ducks his head again and goes back to get the last of the nail polish off, pink dusting his cheeks.

It feels particularly strange to accept compliments on his appearance. Since, after all, this isn't really how he looks... it was just a boringly attractive appearance that he imagined up for a cultivator side character in his novel.

He tries not to dwell on it, instead setting the nail polish remover aside. ]

There. I think that looks clean enough to try again. What do you think?

Mhm. [Huaisang beckons him in for another sweet kiss before they move on to the next task. Once the toes are painted again, he scoots forward very carefully, hooking his knees over Qinghua's lap with his toes to the side where they will be safe from bumping anything. Nestling as close against his friend's side as he can get, he presses a sweet kiss to the side of Qinghua's nose, watching him to see what he's comfortable with and whether he'll ask for more kisses.] Thank you.

[ That gets another slight blush, and he turns away slightly out of embarrassment. ]

You're welcome.

[ But the cuddling is nice, and the closeness is nice as well. Moonlacing really does make physical contact so much more enticing than it did back in his novel... or in the real world, for that matter. He wonders, yet again, if that's why he wants to...

In the end, does it matter? How much does it matter when touch and moonlacing can't be separated here? He wrote a whole novel where the point was one-sided loveless relationship after loveless relationship, where the only point was to sleep with every woman possible and enjoy their physical attributes. If it weren't for the chapters upon chapters full of harem politics and women fighting each other for the protagonist's attention, would they have even needed personalities at all? So he's no stranger to the idea of it, but now that he (finally! finally!!) has a chance at something, the thought that it would just be for physical gratification seems... somehow hollow.

Perhaps he understands a little better why Luo Binghe, when given the option, would pursue Shen Qingqiu to the exclusion of everyone else.

He turns and presses a kiss to Nie Huaisang's forehead. ]

[Qinghua seems to get lost in thought for a moment, looking almost melancholy, and Huaisang watches him with a slight furrow between his brows, worried that whatever is going through Qinghua's mind will result in rejection.

Smiling when his friend's attention returns and he gets a kiss to his forehead, he returns it with a kiss to Qinghua's throat. Resting one hand on Qinghua's chest and the other on his shoulder, still being careful of his fingernails even though he's pretty sure they're dry, he watches his friend with a shyly flirtatious smile.] You know, I haven't trimmed my nails since our last kiss...

[ Shang Qinghua's face immediately lights up bright red, both with the reminder and with his imagination instantly running wild on just what "nails that have been left to grow out" would mean. ]

I see.

[ His voice cracks very slightly.

He turns to stare at Nie Huaisang's face for a few seconds, then leans in for a kiss.

... And then at the last possible moment, suddenly pulls back a little. ]

Ah, are your toes--?

[ Not starting up a kissing session when the nail polish is still wet and having to fix it again!! ]

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