#but the first time lqg injures lbh almost to death in a fight they get into a screaming match so violent

[thwispsings]

the idea came to me in a migraine induced dream but now im obsessed with the concept of a mu qingfang who knew the abuse bunhe was going through at the hands of og!shen qingqiu/shen jiu and did his best to treat the kid whenever he could (and bring his concerns to zhangmen shixiong, which were obviously very much ignored) and his constant worry over the situation means that when the qi deviation happens he is suspicious of shen qingqiu’s changes for all different reasons and very much protective of luo binghe -who is a sweet child and an earnest disciple who seems to always find the most incredible medicinal herbs to bring to his mu shishu as thanks for the care bestowed upon him- which means that when the whole shen qingqiu dying thing happens instead of bad mouthing luo binghe or fighting him at every chance he does his best to come over and keep an eye on things to try and help him and make sure luo binghe won’t kill himself trying to bring shen qingqiu back because he remembers that earnest kid and he’s witnessed luo binghe’s devotion to this shen qingqiu first hand and knows there is no way that the kid who cried when ning yingying found a bird with a broken wing and begged mu qingfang to fix it and the kid that would always borrow medical texts and try to find new herb combinations as if it was a game between him and qian cao disciples is actually doing anything nefarious to shen qingqiu’s corpse.

anyways in this essay i will-

#listen #binghe needs to have more people in his corner #and for some reason i have imprinted on mqf #so you get cool healer uncle #who probably smoked weed with binghe and made him promise to keep quiet #lbh and mqf bonding activity was teaching lbh to properly roll joints #anyways mqf understanding that the rituals are intricate and lqg doesn’t have any other way of coping with his grief #but the first time lqg injures lbh almost to death in a fight they get into a screaming match so violent #that no bai zhan discipline will look at him in the face without going pale for the next month #that is his nephew! who found several thought-to-be-extinct herbs for him! #also him telling sqq that lbh might have forgotten what he did but mqf certainly didn’t #a healer never forgets the wounds they heal #and sqq is just like yeah brother me neither :( #mqf is going to therapy these idiots so fucking hard #lbh also keeps trying to matchmake him with some nice demons in his court like shamelessly trying to poach his mu shishu #also he and shang qinghua are the only ones who still get the full shishu treatment #except lbh kinda bullies sqh a little for the virtue of the whole mbj situation #(hes never gonna let them live that down) #anyways it’s whatever at first but at one poont years in the future it does become a point of contempt with the other peak lords #nothing can take away from me that when bored they will squabble like children #such is the way of bored adults #i have rambled enough so normal tags now #svsss #svsss writing #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #mu qingfang #bingqiu #svsss au

[touchmycoat]

For HX/LQG, a modern!Au might work best, if only because the canons are so hard to mesh. Your B99 casting already seems like a plot. But if you don't want to write a cop AU, maybe a Leverage!AU - HX is out to ruin the person who destroyed his life, LQG is the hitter, HC is the grifter, HX is the mastermind, SY is the hacker, and LBH is the thief. XL is another victim of SWD and the client. No one on the team knows HX's also gunning for SWD for personal reasons.

EJLAKJSDNLFKJANSLDKF FUCKING HELL ANON YOU'RE GENIUS???

HX's been screwed out of everything by this invisible capitalistic force. He's not trying to be, but he's a little down in the dumps. He's a force of nature, but that doesn't change the fact that he's running through the shitty back alleys of the world getting into trouble and half on the prowl for vengeance, half hoping something would come down and kill him already.

XL's another entity running the same circles, though with a lot more ethics. HX has mixed feelings about the guy, but they interact sometimes. They do each other quiet little favors. They come to understand each other as good men, except XL's bottom line always holds and HX has a bottom line that he'll rip out with his bare and bloody hands the moment he figures out who's to blame for the death of his entire family.

One day, XL brings HX a contact—Nie Huaisang. Says the kid just lost his older brother and is apparently getting completely screwed out of the family business. XL would help, but he has a prior obligation out of town, in Banyue, and so maybe HX can look into it? NHS has money, he can pay.

HX takes the case since he has nothing better to do (also, it was the anniversary of his little sister's death, and nobody would call him a soft touch but on occasion, his immense anger can lead to good deeds). NHS is sniffling and useless but the one lead he does have is an acquaintance, a friend even, who runs in the socialite circles, named Shi Qingxuan.

HX follows the lead, a.k.a. stalks SQX for a solid month. He realizes two things. 1) SQX knows way too many people, but among the hundreds he interacts with there's a solid handful of Bad Dudes, and 2) SQX almost definitely does not know it, the little fool. Why would a 2nd gen rich kid cross paths with the likes of Xue Yang? Jin Guangyao? The Palace?

So HX traces all the money back to one name: Shi Wudu.

In the process, he also finds the slaughter of his own family. Investments in bad pharma (killed HX's parents), willful negligence of workplace safety (poisoned and killed HX's sister), Ivy League schemes (stole HX's entire academic future), and of course the classic, being chairman for the insurance company that let HX's fiancee die. Like, you name it, SWD's done it. It was like SWD woke up, chose to play god one day, and said "screw this guy in particular."

And now it's fucking personal. HX heads out and collects the best people he knows for each job (it wasn't like he could clone himself, as much as he'd like to). They were all lone wolves, but that's fine, so is HX. He'd pay them an exorbitant fee for a one-time job and they could all be on their way.

The easiest one to get hold of was Shen Yuan, with the real shit internet alias that HX would never say, thank you very much. SY almost doesn't take the job the moment he hears it's a group effort (too much potential to exposure! people who do his line of work ought to stay anonymous as much as possible!), but HX simply tells him LBH, most famous thief of the criminal underworld, was coming. SY agrees.

HX reaches out to LBH after that and says hey, your favorite little partner on the digital front is taking my job. you want in? LBH immediately says yes.

For the hitter, HX's initial plan was FX or MQ, whoever responded first (and if he told each of them the other was thinking about it, they'd both respond within the hour), but SY goes "nah dude, just use my guy. You heard of Baizhan?" and everybody's heard of what went down at Baizhan so HX agrees. LQG is hired on, frowny and punchy and quiet, which was perfectly fine by HX.

That leaves their grifter. HX thinks about it, and tells the team they were going after one of. SWD's subsidiaries's subsidiaries. The guy in charge is called Pei Su. HX outlines something that looks like it will very much work, but at the very last moment, calls LQG in private, hands him a check with a ton of zeroes on it, and tells LQG to drop the ball in his leg of the mission. They were going to intentionally fail this job—the idea is, once XL gets word that they'd fucked up (and HX probably has to get injured a little), he'd feel bad enough to send his San Lang to their aid, and Hua Cheng's the best grifter HX knows, including himself.

But LQG just scowls and throws the check away, saying this is exactly why he doesn't take group jobs, all this bullshit underhandedness, take your nonsense somewhere else, he's pulling out (and probably convincing SY, and thus LBH by their web of causality, to go with him).

His dismissive attitude pings HX in just the wrong way. For a moment he understands that LQG is looking at himself the same way he looks at people like JGY and SWD—manipulative and full of political nonsense. He's so goddamn angry that he snaps about it.

LQG also tells HX that he, along with bingyuan, also already know that he's gunning for something else here. Why would fucking Black Water pull out all the stops for one tiny job? So until HX tells them what's actually going on, LQG is fucking gone.

HX tackles him to the ground. A brawling match ensues.

LQG may be a hitter, but HX is also very, very good. They kind of beat each other to a pulp, and LQG seems weirdly pleased by the end of it. "More honest than the shit you've been spewing," he scoffs.

As they sit there in the rented apartment-HQ, nursing their wounds, HX ends up telling LQG about his family. Not in an extended or pitiful way, just the facts.

"Was that so damn hard?" LQG complains. "So SWD must die. I'll throw the fight."

HX wasn't trying to be grateful here, but. But he can appreciate a staunch and straight-shooting man.

LQG throws the fight (but tells SY about the plan ahead of time), and they've almost "failed" the job successfully—when this dude in red suddenly appears. Speaks to the security in charge, drops a few important pieces of evidence. Resolves the entire situation with fake lawyer credentials. Pei Su is arrested. The man in red disappears.

HX takes the team back to HQ with gritted teeth, and is not surprised at all to find Hua Cheng waiting for them.

"If your plan was to emotionally blackmail Dianxia," HC says smoothly, "then think again. Black Water, you just made the biggest mistake of your life."

LQG is about to take point, but HX pulls him back.

"And what mistake is that?" HX monotones. HC just smirks and cocks his head to one side.

"You hired me."

#leverage AU #mxtx #sorry it took me so long to reply sldkfjnsdlf #but holy shit this is such a brilliant casting you're a genius #HC is about to be such a fucking little shit #and bingyuan are about to have the most disgusting office romance on the show #HX calls LQG out for pining #LQG's like stfu #they brawl more about it #and slowly slowly they fall in love #HX comes to look toward LQG as a moral compass #and LQG likes nothing more than someone who could wield him well #long post #(apologetic)