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[equivocations]

The shouts from the crowd start to become a little more clear as the figure gets closer, and someone yells, "Chifeng-Zun!"

This, finally, makes the men pause, but it's too late for the one with the knife. Mingjue makes it to the circle of men and targets him first, grabbing him by the back of the neck and hauling him off of Huaisang. He tosses him aside like he weighs nothing, brandishing Baxia at the remaining four.

"Get off of him!" he roars.

The four men seem to realize that this isn't some common whore - at least enough that they don't want to fight an enraged Nie Mingjue over him. They scatter, along with the rest of the audience.

[eternalgrief]

Huaisang thinks at first maybe he's hearing things. He must be hearing things but then his brother is there, saving him. He can't stop sobbing, humiliated and in pain and terrified.

"Da ge," his rasps, struggling to look up at him and he feels hope again. Mingjue would save him. Mingjue always protected him, he could finally be free again.

[equivocations]

"Huaisang." There's still rage in his voice, but it's mixed in with concern now.

There's a part of him that screams to follow after the men and cut them down, for daring to lay a hand on Huaisang, but his brother's safety comes first. He stabs Baxia into the ground, unwilling to sheath her in case they come back, and pulls out his dagger to cut the ropes binding him.

"Did they hurt you?"

[eternalgrief]

"Da ge," Huaisang says again and as the ropes free him he doesn't make a move to move too much. He turns his head for a moment to hide his face from his brother. He's so ashamed.

"Please I just want to leave," he says instead of answering. They had hurt him and he is still hurting but it's the least of his concerns.

[equivocations]

Rage consumes him again when his brother turns his face away. He doesn't need him to give word to it to get an idea of how the men had harmed him. What he doesn't understand is how Xichen could have allowed this to happen - he's done such a good job taking care of his brother so far, why would he slip now, when he knew Mingjue was on his way to see them?

He takes his outer robe off, gently draping it over Huaisang to provide him some covering.

"What happened? Where is Xichen?"

[eternalgrief]

"He let me go," Huaisang says, hating the other even asks about him. He grips at the other's arm once he's covered to slowly pull himself up though he's unsteady on his feet and his body trembles.

"Let's leave here... please, da ge."

He doesn't want to stand around here anymore he wants to be free and out of Lan Xichen's reach.

[equivocations]

He let him go? Dressed like that?

That only raises more questions.

But it's clear that Huaisang isn't in any shape to answer them, and Mingjue is more concerned about the way he trembles on his feet than getting those answers. He can demand them from Xichen when they return.

"Come here," he says gruffly, but it's the manner of gruff he always gets when he's more worried about Huaisang than anything else. He scoops him up, settling him securely in his arms. "Just get some rest. I'll take you home."

[eternalgrief]

When Mingjue says home, Huaisang thinks that he means Qinghe. He has to mean Qinghe, that's home. He hugs his arms tightly around Mingjue in a desperate way he hasn't since he was little, crying quietly now instead of heaving sobs. Huaisang feels small in his arms and so relieved and safe.

"I missed you," Huaisang whispers. He hasn't gotten to see Mingjue all that often. He closes his eyes as his cheek rests on the other's shoulder, trusting him completely.

[equivocations]

Perhaps he should have come to visit him more often. Xichen would have agreed, he's certain - Xichen is the one who had invited him today, who'd told him about the things that Huaisang wanted from him and been willing to let him have them.

He should be heading there to have a conversation about when he's getting that nephew Xichen keeps promising him, and handing over some of the gifts he'd brought Huaisang, not finding his brother set on by a gang of common thieves and having him crying into his shoulder. He's not sure which of them he should be angry at yet, but he's pretty sure it's going to be one of them.

"I'm here now, A-Sang." He tucks his overcoat around Huaisang, covering his face as well to shield it from the sun, in the hopes that he might actually get some rest.

Then he starts off towards Cloud Recesses.

[eternalgrief]

Huaisang eventually settles while tucked in against the other and eventually the exhaustion of the running, the assault and everything before it collasped on him as andrenaline seeped away. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, not paying attention to where Mingjue was taking him.

Home.

Huaisang wouldn't have anything to worry about anymore.

[equivocations]

They don't make it all the way back to Cloud Recesses before running into Lan Xichen. He's still missing his forehead ribbon, and he looks - as panicked as any of the Lan are capable of looking in public, probably, but it fades into relief when he sees Mingjue and the bundle in his arms.

Mingjue glares at him, raising his eyebrows.

Xichen shakes his head, gesturing for them to continue on the path to Cloud Recesses, as he falls in step with him.

"He tried to climb out the window of our room," Xichen eventually says, very quietly. "He still hasn't accepted - I'm sorry, Mingjue, I truly believed he was coming around, that he was starting to be happy. I... I am ashamed to admit that I lost my temper. I told him he could go out like that if he really wanted to leave, and he did."

He shouldn't have let him go. He acted in anger, feeling hurt and betrayed - he shouldn't have given Huaisang a choice.

"I knew I could track him with the ribbon, but I wasn't quick enough. Is he all right?"

Mingjue gives a sharp nod. "All right, but stupid. Stupid, both of you - what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't," Xichen admits. "I was wrong. I should have just finished claiming him like I was supposed to."

[eternalgrief]

Huaisang starts to stir as they talk but it takes a little while for him to really be pulled back to consciousness.

But the moment it dawned on him that he was hearing his brother and his husband speaking his head shot up and immediately he tried to get out of Mingjue's arms.

"Da ge!"

Why would he take him to Xichen? He'd thought his brother was rescuing him. This didn't make any sense.

[equivocations]

"Huaisang!" Mingjue shouts, sounding only mildly aggravated as he struggles to keep his hold on him. "Do you want me to drop you?"

It is the sort of thing that would make Lan Xichen hide a smile, brotherly bickering, if he weren't aware that it's his fault that Mingjue is having to carry him back in the first place.

"Don't be angry with him," he pleads, although even he isn't sure which of them he's talking to. "Let's get back home, and I can properly apologize to you both."

[eternalgrief]

"You said you'd take me home!"

Huaisang says, trying to get out of Mingjue's arms then and trying not to think about Xichen but the other makes it so impossible. How could his brother betray him like this?

"Why would you take me back to him?"

[equivocations]

"He's your husband, Huaisang!"

Mingjue struggles more to keep Huaisang in his arms, resorting to trying to wrap his overcoat more tightly around him to make it harder for him to squirm free.

"Do you want me to help?" Xichen asks.

"He's going to hurt himself if you don't," Mingjue snaps.

Xichen activates the ribbon around Huaisang's neck, pinning it to Mingjue's shoulder the same way he'd pinned it to the wall back in the seclusion room.

[eternalgrief]

Huaisang had never felt betrayed by his brother before -- not truly betrayed. He couldn't understand why Mingjue would force him back to Xichen. He sobs as they talk to each other, almost like he isn't even there. He'd nearly forgotten about the ribbon until it's keeping him pinned to Mingjue's shoulder. He curses harshly.

His hand comes up to pull at it but there's no use.

"I don't understand why," he's crying again and he's so tired of crying.

[equivocations]

Mingjue looks - conflicted. His brows furrow as he looks down at Huaisang crying, instinctively hugging him closer, and then looks back up at Xichen.

Xichen gives a helpless little shrug. He hasn't seen Huaisang cry like that in a while, and he doesn't know if it's because of his ordeal out here, because Xichen finally starting pushing him the way he should have done from the start - or because exactly what Xichen said would happen, happened, and he is starting to realize that this is what his life is to be. That he and Xichen are bound together.

He falls back a few paces, as if to give Mingjue and Huaisang some space.

"He's your husband," Mingjue says again. "Has he not treated you well? Did you not get the gifts he came to Qinghe to get you?"

[eternalgrief]

"I'm nothing more than a piece of chattel that was taken," Huaisang says, dropping his hand from his neck but not before he'd left red scratches from clawing at the ribbon.

It didn't matter if Xichen had treated him well, Huaisang had no real freedom and he couldn't stand it.

[equivocations]

"You're a wife, not livestock, and this is an arranged marriage to secure an alliance. Is that what possessed you to try to run away?" Mingjue sighs, sounding almost as exasperated as when Huaisang used to try to avoid sabre practice.

True, it did not start out as an arranged marriage so much as a concession made by the recently conquered Nie clan, but it has become so much more than that.

"I should have come to visit sooner. We are not subjugated, Huaisang. I still lead the Qinghe Nie, and Xichen has made good on every promise that he made." He raises his voice, as though specifically for Xichen to overhear. "Except for a nephew for me to raise as an heir, and another to ensure that the heir to the Lan clan is a Nie descendent."

[eternalgrief]

Huaisang wants to point out that this isn't really the same as a regular arranged marriage. There wasn't an alliance so much as a submission to the Lan's power but he wouldn't say that out loud as much as it burned on his tongue to spit at his brother. They had been too weak and Huaisang is what they gave over. For Huaisang, there has been no change in what it is, how he feels.

His jaw tightens and he wonders if how his brother's mind has been so twisted...

"You are like an animal that doesn't realized it's still chained."

[equivocations]

"And you are like a child who doesn't realize it's time to grow up and accept his responsibilities," Mingjue snarls, but it's clear he feels bad the moment it's out. "Huaisang..."

Xichen joins them again, though - he'd heard that comment about Mingjue wanting nephews, and assumed it was time for him to come back.

"You are welcome to join us, Mingjue - I did promise it to you both." He rests his hand on Huaisang's forehead, channeling some of his spiritual energy to try to heal him a little. "Perhaps you could use a little pleasure on the way back, Huaisang."

[eternalgrief]

Huaisang tries not to flinch at Mingjue's words but they silence him at least for the moment. It aches too much to keep arguing and he curls his hands into fists as Xichen draws nearer and because of the ribbon he can't jerk away from his touch and he wanted to even if that touch was meant to heal him. He didn't want to be touched again, especially not by Xichen. His breath is shuddered even as the other heals him.

"No," Huaisang says sharply at the mention of pleasure. He doesn't want it. He doesn't want to be forced anymore. "Please..."

[equivocations]

"No? Are you certain?" He runs his hands through Huaisang's hair, gently sweeping it away from his dirt and tear stained face. It's not lost on him that Huaisang would pull away from him, if he could, but that doesn't matter - he cannot, and it is past time that he learned that.

"We were not nearly finished when you ran away, A-Sang, and I have promises to fulfill. It will feel very long, if you do not wish to take pleasure with it. A few orgasms now would relax you."

He says it so easily, like he's not talking about forcing Huaisang to come while he's being carried in his brother's arms. Like he doesn't have his little cock locked down so tight that a true orgasm would be all but impossible.

[eternalgrief]

"No," Huaisang says again, still refusing to open his eyes. He wants him to stop touching him. He needs him to stop but he doesn't and Huaisang does his best to choke down another sob. "I don't want it."

Huaisang doesn't beg, though, he just curls into himself as much as he can in his brother's arms, trying not to show how humiliated he is by the way the other is talking, where Huaisang is and how he's dressed or rather not dressed.

[equivocations]

Xichen's expression falls, and he carefully draws his hand away. It will take time, he reminds himself, it will take time - it's his own fault that it's taken this long, that he's so late in claiming him.

It will be all right.

"All right, Huaisang, if that's what you want. When we get home, we'll get you cleaned up, and then we'll continue. Mingjue - would you like to join right away, or do you need to rest from your journey?"

Mingjue, who'd been watching Xichen's face fall, looks down at Huaisang. "Are you going to behave yourself this time?"