#lan wangji still buried A-Yuan in rabbits as well

[admirableadmiranda]

Possibly an unpopular opinion.. but wwx was not a father figure for A-Yuan during their time in the burial mounds. He was more like a cool, but crazy uncle imo 🤣

Everyone be like, wwx did a good job... It was lwj who raised him 🤔 I mean, don't get me wrong.. our boy Wei did saved him twice and is so happy to have him in his life again. But lwj deserve most of the credit ✌️

Anon, I'm afraid I will have to disagree here and say that I don't agree with this take. If you are ascribing parental figures to one of them, then they both should get the credit, it’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault he was killed after only a year. I’m sure if you ask any number of people who have lost a parent young but they remember their parent being a parent while they were alive, that’s still the feeling they have now.

Yeah, Wei Wuxian plays with him a lot and teases him. That's not necessarily behavior that's only relegated to uncles. Not only does that sound pretty similar to Lan-furen playing with little Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji, but it also sounds like my dad, who definitely was a parent, just one that did his guidance through much more play related activities. There is more than one way to be a caring, good parent.

Also that being said, there are plenty of interactions and character moments that feel very parental in nature. Here he is scolding A-Yuan for eating corpse dirt:

Wei WuXian bent down and picked up the child, letting him sit on his arm, “What do you mean get him away? Can’t you talk properly? A-Yuan, why do you hug the leg of everyone you meet? Off you go! Don’t bite your nails right after you play with mud. Do you know what the mud is made of? Move your hand! Don’t touch my face either. Where’s Granny?”Wei WuXian bent down and picked up the child, letting him sit on his arm, “What do you mean get him away? Can’t you talk properly? A-Yuan, why do you hug the leg of everyone you meet? Off you go! Don’t bite your nails right after you play with mud. Do you know what the mud is made of? Move your hand! Don’t touch my face either. Where’s Granny?”

Here they are with some soup, and I double checked, Wei Wuxian is teasing A-Yuan and saying he's being a good son here. Filial piety is specifically the respect from a child to a parent or ancestor.

Wen Yuan couldn’t stop after just a few mouthfuls, yet he still knew to give the bowl to Wei WuXian, speaking as though he was presenting him with a treasure, “… Brother Xian… Xian eat.”

Wei WuXian seemed to like it a lot, “Yes, very good. So you do know what filial piety means.”

As well as A-Yuan seems to think of Wei Wuxian as a father secretly. A-Yuan gets lost in the market and while looking for Wei Wuxian, discovers and gets scared by Lan Wangji.

In the beginning, Wen Yuan was still holding onto his leg. Wei WuXian walked back and forth, picking out potatoes and bargaining. Hanging on his leg, Wen Yuan felt tired just a while later. His short arms were sore, so he let go to rest for a bit. Yet, in just a few moments, the rush of the people on the streets made him reel left and right, losing his sense of direction. His line of sight was quite low. He walked here and there, but couldn’t find Wei WuXian’s long legs and black boots. Everything in front of his eyes were pants so grimey that they were the color of dirt. He grew more and more petrified. As he spun around dizzily, he bumped into someone’s leg.

Hiding in the crowd as he heard the words ‘his dad’, Wei WuXian almost exploded with laughter. Lan WangJi immediately looked up, denying it, “I am not.”

Wen Yuan didn’t know what the people were talking about. When children were scared, they always called out to those they were close to. And so, sobbing, he called, “Dad! Dad…”

A-Yuan has not even officially met Lan Wangji yet. The narrative tells us he's scared and calling for those that they were close to. The only person who could hear him is Wei Wuxian. He calls him "A-die".

Wei Wuxian’s parenting is definitely a lot more unorthodox than most parenting we see, but let’s keep in mind that he is twenty-one at the most at the time. He is a very young man who is putting himself in the position of caring for a child in a hellistic time on earth. His main goal is to make sure that A-Yuan grows up feeling happy and cared for without ever worrying about their situation. He can’t erase all of it, but he can sure as hell make sure that A-Yuan never feels like everyone’s miserable. A-Yuan also seems to be the only child in the camps, who else does he have to play with?

The relationship between the three of them is interesting because there is no singular term that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji use for Sizhui, nor does Sizhui quite define them in one particular relationship. He calls Wei Wuxian “Xian-gege” most of the time, but also “A-Die” once when he’s scared. He describes Lan Wangji as being like a “father and brother” to him. The two men clearly both take pride and interest in his upbringing and even take him out on special trips alone with just the two of them.

If you conclude that Lan Wangji feels more like a parent to Lan Sizhui, keep in mind that they both give Sizhui the same sense of safety. He connects the two with the same emotion.

Wei WuXian turned to him, “SiZhui, you’re the most sensible one here. Guide them a bit, won’t you? Can you do that?”

Lan SiZhui nodded. Wei WuXian added, “Don’t be scared.”

Lan SiZhui, “I am not.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Lan SiZhui smiled, “Senior, you are so much like HanGuang-Jun.”

Wei WuXian was puzzled, “Us? How are we alike?” They were obviously like fire and ice. However, Lan SiZhui only grinned in reply, and led the rest of the group out.

He continued his thought silently, I do not know, either, but they just feel similar. It is as though if either one of the two seniors are present, I will not need to be scared or worry about anything.

And both of Wangxian conclude that they are both responsible for how he turned out, as well as the same soft look in their eyes.

At least, Lan SiZhui couldn’t hold it any longer. With a loud cry, he leaped up. One hand around Wei WuXian and the other around Lan WangJi, he pulled the two into a tight embrace. Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi bumped into each other from the hug. Both of them were surprised.

Lan SiZhui buried his head between their shoulders, “HanGuang-Jun, Senior Wei, I… I…”

Hearing his muffled voice, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi exchanged a look, only inches apart. They both saw something soft within each other’s eyes.

Wei WuXian fixed his mood and put his hand on Lan SiZhui’s back, patting, “Enough, what are you crying for?”

Lan SiZhui, “Not crying… Just… I suddenly feel so frustrated, but so happy as well… I do not know how to describe it…”

After some silence, Lan WangJi laid his hand onto his back as well and patted. Lan WangJi, “There is no need to describe it then.”

Wei WuXian, “That’s right.”

Lan SiZhui didn’t say anything. He hugged them even tighter.

Soon, Wei WuXian exclaimed, “Hey, hey, hey, why are your arms so strong? Definitely deserving of HanGuang-Jun’s teachings…”

Lan WangJi glanced at him, “You taught him as well.”

Wei WuXian, “No wonder he grew up so nicely.”

There is no single defined relationship, but it is clearly close, affectionate and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji definitely have a mentor/parental interest in his life and take a close hand in guiding him on the road to adulthood. However the thing that is clear is that Wangxian both share the same feelings and give Sizhui the same emotions. If one is an uncle, both are. If one is a parent, both are. 

Also again, I think it’s super unfair to blame Wei Wuxian for not being involved in A-Yuan’s upbringing while he was dead, especially since every time Wei Wuxian thinks of Sizhui, Sizhui keeps making him proud and thinking of how good a child he is. Lan Wangji also clearly is raising Sizhui to be aware of Wei Wuxian as he was and to when he is ready, know the other family that he lost.

If Wangxian were together and Wei Wuxian still died young, would you say that Lan Wangji still deserves all the credit? It’s not like Wei Wuxian walked out or chose not to be involved. He died. Of course Lan Wangji has put in the more time, but that’s not something either of them ever wanted.

So yeah, it probably is kind of an unpopular opinion. And not one I particularly agree with either. Sorry!

[robininthelabyrinth]

for @oneiriad, who wanted WN/WWX/LWJ - happy birthday! (also on ao3)

1

Following the war, Wen Qing had had something of a revelation.

Namely, that the vast majority of problems in her life were due to the fact that she was surrounded by a bunch of idiots.

2

The first she noticed of it was on the day Wei Wuxian brought back a bow and some arrows to the Burial Mounds.

Her first thought had been to begin to worry, as it always was. Why would Wei Wuxian think that they needed a weapon of war? Were the countless arrays and traps with which he had surrounded their home not sufficient? The corpses he had raided graveyards and battlefield for all set at key position points, the talismans that they had painstakingly drawn in seemingly infinite number, the physical barriers they had erected, were those not enough? What threat did he foresee having arisen that required more than that?

And also – why had he only brought back one?

The answer, it turned out, was that Wei Wuxian, terminal idiot, had not thought of war at all. He hadn’t even thought about hunting, as Wen Qing’s fourth uncle had tentatively suggested, not that there was anything to hunt on the Burial Mounds, dead as it was.

No, Wei Wuxian had seen it being sold at a dirt-cheap price and bought it simply because he thought it’d be fun.

Wen Qing huffed at Wei Wuxian’s extravagance – you could tell he was raised rich, no matter what stories he told; they could have used that money for something practical – but in the end he was their benefactor, and, well, the bow and arrows were pretty fun. Wei Wuxian had been among the most skillful of his generation in archery, and although he was somewhat rusty he had retained the majority of his skill. A-Yuan had been particularly charmed, cheering wildly at every trick shot that Wei Wuxian had pulled out of his repertoire, and he hadn’t been the only one.

Towards the end of the day, when Granny had carted A-Yuan back inside over his protests, reminding him that good little boys who’d been standing in the mud all day needed to wash up before dinner, Wei Wuxian had even drawn Wen Ning into his game.

“- have to try it,” he said coaxingly, even as her brother shifted from side to side in embarrassment, wringing his hands. “As soon as I saw it, I thought of you! Do you remember when we first met?”

“The archery competition,” her brother murmured.

“You were practicing,” Wei Wuxian said with a laugh. “You had it almost right back then – you have no idea how much I wanted to come over to help you fix your stance.”

“It – probably wouldn’t have helped.”

“No, no, it would have! You’d be amazed at how much having the right stance will help – here, let me show you.”

“Wei-gongzi –”

“I insist!”

There was some rearranging, and the next time Wen Qing looked over, Wei Wuxian was standing right beside her brother, one hand on his hip and the other on his arm, gently guiding him into position. The laughter had fallen off his tongue, and he looked intent upon what he was doing.

“You were as skittish and shy as a rabbit back then,” he said. His voice was low, lower than normal – if Wen Qing could see his eyes, she would wager that they were darker than usual, too. His hand did not need to linger at her brother’s hip, but did. “I couldn’t come close or else you’d bolt…but things are different now, aren’t they?”

Her brother shivered as if an usually cold gust of wind had gone by – a gust of wind that, as a fierce corpse, he would not feel.

So that’s how it is, Wen Qing thought to herself. Wen Ning’s infatuation with their benefactor had been obvious from the beginning, when he’d begged so earnestly for her to help with Jiang Cheng; his eyes had been so bright and hopeful that she hadn’t had the heart to remind him that it was pointless to hope. And for his part, Wei Wuxian had tried very hard to revive her brother, far more than bare handful of meetings and a favor done would merit.

Perhaps those long-buried feelings of her brother’s hadn’t been so pointless after all.

Wen Qing forcefully quashed the part of her that wanted to march over and demand that Wei Wuxian make his intentions clear at once (she would accept marriage or nothing for Wen Ning, fierce corpse or not). For one thing, Wei Wuxian was their benefactor – she was in no position to be making demands or threats – and for another, it seemed unnecessary.

They seemed to be doing perfectly fine on their own.

3

Lan Wangji had come to visit again.

“Is the Lan sect bored of rebuilding, do you think?” she asked Granny, rolling her eyes – it was at least the fifth visit, and Lan Wangji stayed longer every time. “You’d think their second young master would have more work to do; it’s not like Yiling is next door.”

“I don’t think that’s why he’s come to visit,” Granny said. They were doing laundry together, one of the unavoidable daily chores - normally, Granny would be watching a-Yuan, but today he was out for a walk with Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, Wen Ning trailing behind like the faithful shadow he sometimes seemed to wish to become.

Wei Wuxian had very proudly explained in the morning that they were taking A-Yuan on his very first “night-hunt”, never mind that it was the middle of the afternoon, with the sun still high in the sky, or that A-Yuan’s only weapon was a stick he had taken to waving around whenever Lan Wangji practiced his sword forms in the morning and night.

(Wei Wuxian watched as well, hunger in his eyes, and Wen Qing turned away, a bitter taste on her tongue. She would not begrudge Wei Wuxian the grief of his sacrifice, but she sometimes wished he’d acknowledge a little bit more that he was not the only one who had given things up that day.)

“What’s the reason, then?” Wen Qing asked, mind mostly elsewhere – calculating what the other members of the clan would be able to earn today at the market and what would be the best thing to spend it on. They needed new clothing, and A-Yuan new shoes, but they might be able to convince his ‘rich gege’ to cover the shoes and the clothing could be mended a few more times before it truly needed replacing. That would free up enough money for other necessities. “I don’t think he’s still suspicious of Wei-gongzi.”

Granny laughed. “Suspicious isn’t the word I’d use, no. Madly in love? Maybe.”

Wen Qing’s brain returned back to the present conversation so quickly she almost imagined that she could feel her brain hitting her skull from the whiplash. 

“What?” she asked, voice sharp. “Hanguang-jun likes – Wei-gongzi?”

“Hadn’t you noticed?”

“But Wei-gongzi…” Wen Qing trailed off, reviewing past events in her mind. The way Wei Wuxian’s eyes lit up whenever Lan Wangji arrived, shouting Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan! – an incredible intimacy, now that she thought about it, about equal to the way with which he addressed Jiang Cheng – and the way they spent time together, walking or talking or just staring into each other’s eyes. The way Lan Wangji paid for everything Wei Wuxian might want (in other words, nothing practical). The way Wei Wuxian would talk about him even when he wasn’t there.

The way the two of them sometimes duetted at night, guqin and dizi matching each other perfectly in the moonlight.

(Wen Ning played a little, too, but the Wen sect hadn’t bothered with anything more than the most perfunctory lessons – no private tutors or anything like that – and he was only all right, not great. Certainly not good enough to keep up with either of those two masters.)

Wen Qing frowned thunderously.

After the “hunting party” returned, she went to find Wen Ning.

“I know you’re grateful to him,” she said plainly the second they were alone. “I am, too. But that doesn’t mean you should let him walk all over you.”

Wen Ning blinked at her. “Walk…what?”

“If Wei-gongzi is two-timing you with Hanguang-jun –”

“Jiejie!” Wen Ning hissed, his hands flying up to cover his face as if he could still blush. “It’s not like that!”

“Isn’t it? Because that’s not what Granny says. She says Hanguang-jun is in love.”

“He is,” Wen Ning said.

Wen Qing frowned, confused. “Wei-gongzi is leading him on, then? I would have thought better of him.”

“You apparently thought he was two-timing me, so clearly your view of him isn’t that good,” Wen Ning said, sounding injured on Wei Wuxian's behalf, because of course he was. “He’s not like that. He’s not – we’re not – it’s not like that. Between us.”

“It isn’t? But he likes you, and I know you like him.” Wen Qing hesitated. “Is it – the fierce corpse thing? We’ve been making a lot of progress on restoring your bodily functions over the past few months. If you’ve been having performance issues, we could prioritize –”

“I have not been having performance issues.” Wen Ning looked like he wanted to die, which was not an uncommon look on his face for their private conversations. For someone who helped out with her surgeries on a regular basis, he was still so very shy sometimes. “It hasn’t come up.”

Wen Qing quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Not what I meant, jiejie. It’s just…Wei-gongzi doesn’t…he’s not very good at understanding his own emotions.”

Wen Qing thought about Jiang Cheng and made a sour face. “No, he’s not.”

“Unless it’s pointed out to him, he won’t even notice that he likes someone,” Wen Ning continued. “Or that – someone likes him.”

“All right,” Wen Qing said, because that did fit her understanding of Wei Wuxian a lot better than either two-timing or leading someone on did. “Fine, then. I assume Hanguang-jun hasn’t said anything, even if only because he’s made of stone, so you’d better be the one to point it out to him.”

“I did. Early today, when we were out.”

“Good,” Wen Qing said. “So where is he?”

“With Hanguang-jun,” Wen Ning said.

“With –” Wen Qing stopped. “A-Ning. What did you point out to Wei-gongzi?”

He shrugged and ducked his head.

“A-Ning! Why? You like him so much…”

“He could have Hanguang-jun,” he pointed out, soft and sad the way her brother too often was. The way he often wasn’t, when Wei Wuxian was smiling at him. “Why would he want me?”

4

“Mistress Wen,” Lan Wangji said, standing at the door to the cave she was using as a makeshift clinic.

Wen Qing wasn’t sure of what to make of his presence - he’d more or less moved in ever since he and Wei Wuxian had gotten together, but he didn’t often seek out the company of anyone but Wei Wuxian. Least of all her, but then again, she hadn’t been the most welcoming, angry as she still was over Wen Ning’s quiet and unnoticed heartbreak.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, and wasn’t surprised when he shook his head. “Then what can I do for you?”

“Advice,” he said.

Wen Qing mentally sighed, but nodded and gestured for him to come sit down. She’d have to get used to treating him like he was one of the family sometime - he was part of life at the Burial Mounds now, part of Wei Wuxian’s life, and there wasn’t any revisiting that decision.

Also, A-Yuan loved him.

“What’s the problem?” she asked, practical as always.

Lan Wangji didn’t quite meet her eyes, which for him was practically a confession of nervousness. Possibly even embarrassment – was that a hint of pink in his ears?

“Just spit it out,” Wen Qing said with a sigh, outwardly this time. “I’m a doctor. There’s very little I haven’t dealt with before, whether it’s a matter of the human body, the human heart, or the human mind.”

Lan Wangji nodded slowly. “You may know that I cannot currently return to the Cloud Recesses.”

Wen Qing had gathered that certain parts of his family had not been taking his decision to get together with Wei Wuxian especially well, although she’d heard that his brother was fully supportive. Since said brother was the sect leader, he ought to carry the day in the end, but she could definitely understand how the job of convincing the sect that the relationship was acceptable was probably best done with Lan Wangji conveniently elsewhere.

“I understand the awkwardness that this might cause,” he said. “And I have been – trying, recently, to find time to leave the Burial Mounds on my own. Taking night-hunts when I know Wei Ying is busy, or finding an excuse to go into town for the evening…and yet, the last time I went, I discovered that Wei Ying had sent Wen Qionglin to guard my inn for the night.”

“He does that,” Wen Qing agreed, a little mystified. She’d thought Lan Wangji liked to stick to Wei Wuxian like burnt rice to the pot. “Since A-Ning doesn’t need sleep…are you getting bored of Wei-gongzi or something?”

“Certainly not,” Lan Wangji said, sounding a little offended. “It was only that I had gone specifically in order to leave Wei Ying and Wen Qionglin time to be – alone.”

“…why?”

Lan Wangji blinked at her. His ears were definitely red now. “I had not presumed –” He stopped, coughed a little. “I am very grateful that Wei Ying has agreed to be with me, but I would never seek to deprive him of joy by causing trouble in his existing relationship.”

“Existing relationship,” Wen Qing said faintly. “With – A-Ning.”

Lan Wangji nodded. He appeared relieved that they were on the same page.

“Have you…mentioned this goal of yours?” she asked, trying to suppress a hysterical set of giggles. “To Wei-gongzi? Or did you just drop hints? He’s not – I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but he’s not great with hints.”

Lan Wangji looked a little long-suffering, something Wen Qing could generally relate to. “I tried to make my position clear earlier today,” he said. “I told him that I knew of the esteem he had for Wen Qionglin, the clear affection between them – the longing with which Wen Qionglin looks at him, the way Wei Ying’s eyes linger on him in return. I told him that I did not have any expectations that he would yield up Wen Qionglin simply for my sake, that I had already accustomed myself to the notion that I would be sharing him…that I truly didn’t mind if he would like to spend some nights in his bed, rather than my own.”

A-Ning doesn’t even have a proper bed, Wen Qing thought, rather irrelevantly. He’d refused to let them waste time building him one when he didn’t really need sleep, anyway; he’d said they could use the time on more necessary tasks.

“And how did he react?” she asked instead.

“Strangely,” Lan Wangji said. “He turned bright red and sought to deny it, but I assured him once again that it was not an issue – if anything, I am grateful to Wen Qionglin for his graciousness in allowing Wei Ying to open his heart to me as well – and for some reason he spluttered a great deal and then ran away. I came to you to see if you could shed some light on…Mistress Wen?”

Wen Qing was clutching onto her face and rocking back and forth, trying to breathe through the intense desire to laugh.

“Lan-er-gongzi,” she choked out. “You are both insightful and wise – wiser than either of them.”

“…Mistress Wen?”

“You’re not wrong,” Wen Qing said. “Wei-gongzi likes my brother rather a lot, and my brother’s been half in love with him since forever. But they’re not actually together.”

Lan Wangji gaped at her.

“I know,” she said. “My brother decided that between him and you, you were more suitable, so he confessed on your behalf instead of his own. I don’t think the notion of sharing ever came up.”

“Oh.”

“And Wei-gongzi is so thick when it comes to matters of emotion that it’s unlikely he even realized what he was missing – at least until you brought it to his attention,” she added dryly. “I hope you meant what you said about being all right with it.”

Wei Wuxian might be slow when it came to figuring out his feelings, but he wasn’t slow when it came to asserting them. He was probably accosting her brother right now, and –

And she wasn’t going to think about that. That’s her baby brother, damnit.

“I am,” Lan Wangji said. “I do not lie. They have a way between them…it would make Wei Ying happy. I want Wei Ying to be happy.”

All right, fine. Wen Qing would reluctantly agree to like Hanguang-jun, him being so reasonable and all.

“Maybe arrange for a selection of different nights?” she suggested. “You can come here and do research with me on the nights when your bed is occupied…A-Ning refused to let us get him one, since he doesn’t sleep. He said it’d be a waste of money.”

Lan Wangji looked appropriately off-put by that. “I could obtain one, if that would be helpful..?”

“Immensely,” Wen Qing assured him. “He has no idea how to turn down gifts – it’d be perfect.”

She paused, considering Lan Wangji. She hadn’t asked before, since it had seemed almost presumptuous, but if he really was going to be staying…

“How much do you know about radishes?”

5

“Wen Qing! I need help!”

“At least you admit it, Wei-gongzi,” Wen Qing said peacefully. The radish garden was doing so well now that she’d put Lan Wangji to work, she could positively cry. And maybe open up a new field for potatoes the way Wei Wuxian had wanted.

“Admit – hey!” Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes at her. “I come to you for help and you make fun of me?”

“Every time,” she agreed. “What do you want, anyway?”

“I want help, obviously,” he said, and sat down next to her. “I want to convince Lan Zhan and Wen Ning to get together.”

Wen Qing stopped what she was doing, reached up to scrub her ears, and said, “I’m sorry, you want to what?”

“I want to get Lan Zhan and Wen Ning together,” he said, which was what she’d thought he said, except for the fact that it was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. Surely he didn’t mean – “You know. Romantically.”

Nope. He meant it.

“Not sexually?” she asked, even though that by itself would be a stretch. Lan Wangji and Wen Ning tolerated each other for Wei Wuxian; left to their own devices, they did not spend any time together.

“Well, I mean, sexually would be fun, too,” Wei Wuxian said, his eyes getting all misty like he wasn’t talking about her brother. “They’d be gorgeous together…but no. More than that. I’m tired of this whole bed-hopping, time-sharing thing. I want us all to be together!”

“That’s – a nice thought,” Wen Qing managed to say. “You realize they have nothing in common except you, right?”

“They have plenty in common!” Wei Wuxian argued. “They’re both intelligent and cultured, with a good education – they were both in the Sunshot Campaign –”

On opposite sides. Remember?

“– and, really, Wen Ning’s a whole lot better than I ever was when it comes to rules of all sorts. I bet they could have all sorts of fun discussions about that.”

Sure. Rules. Why not?

Wei Wuxian exhaled gustily and put his chin in his hands. “Nothing I’ve been doing seems to have worked, though,” he complained. “I’ve tried everything…today I even called them both over under the premise of there being an emergency and then left them to solve it themselves.”

“You did what?”

“I wanted them to spend some time together!”

Wei Wuxian was, it was sad to say, a total idiot.

On the other hand, she thought as she looked over his shoulder as two rather irritated looking men stalking their way up the path to the Burial Mounds, both sets of eyes fixed on Wei Wuxian’s back, he had also always been a very lucky idiot.

“Well, maybe they found something to talk about,” she said comfortingly, omitting to mention that the subject of the conversation that seemed most likely was going to be how they would punish Wei Wuxian for his nonsense when they returned.

“You think so?” Wei Wuxian asked, looking hopeful. “It’d be so much nicer if they could just let down their reservations, put down their guards, and just relax –”

“Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian twisted so fast that Wen Qing was momentarily concerned that he’d pulled something.

“Lan Zhan! Wen Ning!” he said, beaming widely. “How nice to –”

His lips zipped shut.

The infamous Lan sect silencing spell, Wen Qing presumed.

Wen Ning nodded at her in greeting as he came over and picked Wei Wuxian up as if he weighed less than a bag of their radishes, tossing him over his shoulder as if – well, like bag of radishes again.

“Lead the way,” he said to Lan Wangji, who also nodded at Wen Qing, and then the three of them – Lan Wangji, Wen Ning, and a struggling-but-not-really-struggling Wei Wuxian – walked off to the Demon-Slaughtering Cave.

Where, no doubt, they would sit and have tea. With all their clothing firmly on, while maintaining an appropriate distance from each other.

An older sister could only hope.

Wen Qing sighed.

Wei Wuxian was only going to get even more intolerably smug when this was all over.

6

Really, though. So many problems – entirely because people just couldn’t stop being stupid.

Maybe she could fix the Jiang Cheng situation too, while she was at it.

[wangxianficrecs]

everybody lives because i said so by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)

everybody lives because i said so

by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)

T, 49k, wangxian, 3zun, 3 works, series in progress

Summary (Part 1):  3 times no one questions Nie Huaisang's friendship with Sect Leader Yao and 1 time someone does.

Or, the one where Nie Huaisang becomes the headshaker much earlier just for the fun of it, and for absolutely no reason that can be considered serious or important, what are you even talking about?

My comments:  In Part 1, nhs 'befriends' (and distracts) Sect Leader Yao. This has the best characterization I've seen of Sect Leader Yao (who always kind of cracks me up): "The thing with Sect Leader Yao is that… He’s not a terrible person, which really is truly unfortunate because Huaisang cannot just mindlessly dislike him. He is not Jin Zixun who is simply a bully. He’s an old man who grew up thinking power and prestige and his own opinion was more important than anything." (And he's ridiculously easily swayed.)

___

Part 2 is from lwj POV and shows him sweetly falling more and more in love with wwx, a-yuan and the whole burial mounds. Lordy, is he thinky, and whoa, does NONE of it manage to come out of his mouth. Author paints his busy thoughts and inability to verbalize them very vividly. Also, he's an odd bird:

Excerpt:  “Sit down, Jiang-zongzhu,” he finds himself saying. “Be mindful of the rabbits.”

Jiang Wanyin stares at him. He looks like he is going to argue more, but Lan Zhan averts his eyes, focusing on stroking one of the rabbit’s fur. Either Jiang Wanyin sits down or he does not. He’s very similar to Wei Ying that way.

Lan Zhan had not meant to say what he did out loud, but it seems to be as effective a strategy as any. Even Wei Ying becomes calm and serene when surrounded with enough rabbits. Surely it would work for his brother as well?

Eventually, Jiang Wanyin sits down. Carefully. Lan Zhan appreciates the effort.

There are five rabbits sitting on Lan Zhan’s lap. He puts two of them in Jiang Wanyin’s hands. Jiang Wanyin continues to stare at him like he’s gone mad, but he remains still nonetheless.

“Talk to Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says, picking up another three rabbits and placing them on Jiang Wanyin’s lap. The other man seems too shocked to do anything. “Wei Ying misses his brother.”

Jiang Wanyin opens and closes his mouth several times but no sound comes out. Lan Zhan pays him no heed, continuing to pile more rabbits on top of the Jiang sect leader. There aren’t enough to bury him completely, but Lan Zhan can still make a workable attempt at it.

Being surrounded by rabbits is very soothing. It will help Jiang Wanyin not be so angry all the time.

Jiang Wanyin continues to stare at him. He does not say anything. He does not even move. Shock is certainly a much calmer expression than rage.

Lan Zhan’s plan is already working.

(That is how Wei Ying finds them, nearly an hour later, with Jiang Wanyin half-buried in rabbits and Lan Zhan sitting serenely across from him.

To Wei Ying’s credit, he doesn’t burst out laughing until after he’s out of Jiang Wanyin’s hearing.)

***

Part 3 is about 3zun figuring out how to tell their brothers. Well, jzx finds out traumatically, lwj finds out phlegmatically, and nhs knew all along, but hey....

fix it, everyone lives/nobody dies, nie huaisang is a planner, and also friends with sect leader yao, which I adore, burial mounds, fluff, angst, slow burn, domestic, a-yuan, canon divergence, sharing a bed, lan wangji stays in the burial mounds, rabbits, humor, friendship, family, slow burn, golden core reveal, falling in love, soft, angry grape jiang cheng, awkward lan wangji, functional mute lan wangji, autistic coded character, in which moving bunnies is a metaphor for making commitments, getting together, family feels, brotherly feels, philosophical musings, character study, @acediscowlng​

(You may wish to REBLOG as a signal boost for this author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[inessencedevided]

I love fics that feature just all around good-dad-lan-wangji because yes, he obviously raised Lan Sizhui well and with love, but do you know what I love even more?

Good, but ultimately deeply struggling dad lan wangji. Patenting is hard under the best of circumstances and his were anything but

Give me Lan Wangji still struggling under the weight of his whole worldview being shattered, trying to raise a boy to follow rules he no longer wholly believes in, so he has to navigate each situation individually and it's hard.

Give me Lan Wangji who is still in pain from his wounds and lifting a yuan is agony but he pushes through.

Give me Lan Wangji who on some days, can only bring himself to rise at 5 because it is hammered into his body, but who, for the life of him, cannot bring himself to leave the jingshi some days even after his seclusion has ended because interacting with people would just be too much, but there is a boy depending on him so he must and the guilt when he can't is killing him. (he's been that kid waiting in front of closed door. He never wants that for A Yuan)

Give me a Lan Wangji who (canonically) burns himself in a drunken haze and a Lan Xichen who (struggling himself under his responsibilities and the fresh grief for nie mingjue) tells him he can't do such things while he is responsible for a child.

Give me a Lan Wangji who struggles to give A Yuan the physical affection he so clearly wants. On good days, he even iniates touch. It's not his natural form of affection but he sees how Lan Yuan thrives on it and that makes his chest warm in turn. On worse days he only accepts Lan Yuan's touch by staying very still and waiting for it to pass. On the worst days, the thought of anyone, even this precious child, touching his skin makes it crawl with ants. On those he beckons Lan Yuan to follow him to the rabbits and buries him in them until only his head pokes out of the fluffy pile. It's a substitute, but an effective one and he thinks he might not be doing too bad when the clearing rings with the child's laughter.

Give me Lan Wangji who tries to be present for his child, but there are rumors of demonic cultivation swirling around and he has to raise to follow them because what if Jiang Cheng gets there first again and kills another possible reincarnation of his own brother? So he goes to follow, but not without leaving Lan Yuan with another Guqin piece to study and the unspoken promise that the first thing he will do upon his return is listen to him play to asses his progress. It becomes their routine after his travels.

Give me a Lan Wangji who, upon taking the Juniors on a night hunt and encounterering the Jiang sect leader, try as he might, cannot bring himself to say a word to him because if he did he doesn't know what might come out and he cannot loose control like that. So Lan Sizhui does the talking and Lan Wangji feels guilty because this child (who doesn't know that his birth family is death, partially because of Sandu Shengshu) shouldn't have to navigate their old conflict but he cannot bring his mouth to move. It seems to be okay though. Lan Sizhui is as much Lan Xichen’s nephew as he is his and Wei Ying's child and when Lan Wangji tries to talk to him about the encounter, he only says that seeing how other sects interact is ... interesting with a wry smile.

Just ... Lan Wangji struggling to be a better father than his own, with a strong emphasis on the "struggling" part

[restingdomface]

AU where Lan Sizhui gets temporarily turned into a toddler and he’s still sorta having trouble remembering actually being a toddler but this is post canon so he remembers Wei Wuxian enough to know that that’s his daddy but he also knows that Lan Wangji is his other daddy and so for an amazing glorious month they get to wake up to a toddler crawling on them and constantly begging Wen Ning to cuddle him all the time (and the elders and other juniors are sorta shocked by that one again, because they knew LSZ was attached to WN but seeing a toddler fall asleep in his arms and ask to play with him all the time seems to surreal) and Jin Ling gets to give his now baby cousin lots of kisses and cuddles and so does Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen but A-Yuan doesn’t remember them so well (he’s pretty much having issues remembering most people cause his memories from that time are fuzzy but his memories as an adult seem like a dream) so these are like new buddies and it’s beautiful.

He gets buried in both bunnies AND dirt this time. It’s traditional. This time, Uncle Xichen doesn’t argue when they start piling rabbits on him. He trusts that the bun buns love Sizhui enough not to nibble on him. Even if WWX says he’s a radish now.

He turns back into a teen again and he starts crying pretty soon and WWX and LWJ are freaking out and asking him why he’s upset and he says that he’s still having issues remembering the Burial Mounds and being with WWX the first time, but he remembers being little with this family around him and he’s just so happy to have these memories now. Many kisses and cuddles are exchanged.

[niets-is-onbeduidend]

More Modern AU’s

* indicates a personal favourite 

MODERN CULTIVATOR AU’s 

I feel like I win when I lose by so_shhy

Wei Ying is at his first Grand Final, rated fifth in the solo cultivator rankings, with the Qishan and Lanling silver medals tucked away in his sock drawer, and he’s about to walk into the arena for a match that everyone knows he’s going to lose.

A modern competitive cultivation AU.

Words: 25.500

Always Knew You Were Magical by jeyhawk 

Lan Wangji finds Wei Wuxian pajamas to wear and coaxes him into them, wide plaid pants in dark blue and white and a t-shirt with two rabbits on it. Wei Wuxian looks down on the shirt and smiles for the first time all evening.

"Lan Zhan, do all your pajamas have rabbits on them?"

Lan Wangji thinks about lying, but it would be foolish when Wei Wuxian is standing right next to the proof. He inclines his head slightly.

"I like rabbits," he says.

Wei Wuxian blinks and then he smiles a little wider.

Words: 25.000

living in my memory/living in my mouth by tardigradeschool

Wei Wuxian dies at twenty-two and doesn’t come back. Lan Wangji dies in an “unfortunate accident” in a temple in Yunping at thirty-seven. The world moves on.

Thousands of years later, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan have a senior thesis in cultivation to co-write on the Yiling Patriarch. It doesn’t go exactly how they were expecting. - “I still do not understand why you were able to read the journal in the first place,” Lan Zhan says.

Wei Ying grins. “You’ll laugh,” he says. He won’t, of course. Lan Zhan doesn’t laugh. But maybe he can swing a smile. “It’s because of the name thing. He wrote his name into the scrambling talisman. So it says that no one can undo the lock but Wei Ying.” He hooks a thumb at himself.

Everyone’s always said his name is unlucky. This is the first time it’s worked out in his favor. It’s not a coincidence either; apparently his mother thought it would be funny. Mrs. Yu had told him that with a curl in her lip, as if it didn’t make him wish he knew his parents even more.

Words: 33.000

Brilliant Mistake by brooklinegirl

"Fine," Wen Qing says, turning back to Wei Ying. "You're pregnant."

Lan Zhan feels his mouth drop open and has to work to shut it.

Wei Ying reacts not at all. He's swinging his feet where he's sitting on the table, a bored expression on his face.

Wen Qing just looks at him. "I am not joking about that."

Wei Ying stops swinging his feet. He blinks several times in a row. "Wait," he says.

Words: 53.500

MODERN AU

Operation Old Men by Chiharu

An ill-fated parent teacher conference reunites Jin Ling's wayward uncle with Sizhui's father. AKA: A matchmaking disaster as told by Jin Ling, Sizhui, and Jingyi.

Jin Ling knows he’s in deep trouble even before reporting to Headmaster Lan’s office, but the words “your uncle will be here soon” still strike the fear of God in him. His only consolation is that Jingyi and Sizhui’s guardians are also in the office, Jingyi’s mom already lecturing her sheepish-looking son. Lan-ayi only stops when Sizhui’s father, a quiet and tall man in white, clears his throat, causing her to engage him in one-sided smalltalk.

This is a disaster. Jin Ling had spent such a nice break at home for Mid-Autumn Festival, and Fairy’s presence had soothed his homesickness after returning to boarding school in Gusu. He knows pets aren’t allowed, but who is going to report Jin Ling when his father pays good money for a private suite in the dorms? Then there was the incident with Jingyi, a box of mooncakes, and a door left ajar. Long story short, he spent an hour chasing Fairy down the halls with Sizhui and Jingyi before finding his dog nosing up to a very angry Headmaster Lan.

Words: 37.500/Modern AU/ humour/ JIn Lings many uncles

*Let's Play Pretend and Live Our Lives by Tassos

"And for Lan Zhan? He's not going to believe that I mentioned A-Yuan to him and he's the one who forgot about it."

Nie Huaisang lifts his wine glass and gestures with it a little, like a sage who has given his advice and now the rest is Wei Wuxian's problem. "You're just going to have to pretend very hard. Don't let him break you."

Or: The one where Wei Wuxian secretly adopts A-Yuan and when he tries to convince Lan Wangji he had a kid all along, Lan Wangji rolls with it, ups the ante, and sets off a game of chicken that digs up buried feelings that Wei Wuxian is 100% sure he's not going to act on. Okay, 90% sure.

Words: 50.000/ kid fic/fake relationship

say it's here where our pieces fall in place by Lirelyn

“It’s okay that you miss him,” said Lan Wangji, a familiar litany to them both by now. “Do you feel sad?”

“I feel sad,” A-Yuan repeated, shoulders hitching with tiny hiccuping sniffs. “When is he coming back?”

“I don’t know. I am not sure where he is.”

But this seemed to frustrate A-Yuan. “Xian-gege! I miss him! Please, baba?” He looked up at him with wet cheeks and a wide, quivering frown. “Please baba can you ask him? I really miss him!” He sobbed again, heartbreakingly.

It stabbed straight through him, cracking open the reservoir of loss and helplessness that was all his own. His child’s grief did that, sometimes. It always took him by surprise. He caught his breath sharply and gathered A-Yuan into his arms, holding him tight until the pain ebbed.

“I will try,” he said softly into A-Yuan’s hair, when he could speak again. He never made uncertain promises and tried not even to raise uncertain hopes, but his son was hurting. His son believed he could make it better. He couldn’t not try.

Wen Qing might at least know who this “Xian-gege” was. He would text her in the morning. It would be a start.

Words: 68.500/kid fic

*And the world's alright with me by so_shhy

Wei Ying has been feeling like a grey, wrung-out, mildewed dishrag for a week when Lan Zhan slopes in from a trip to the store looking blank-faced and awkward and sets a pregnancy test down on the kitchen counter.

Words: 13.000/ mpreg/ pining 

*总有一天; a place to hide (can’t find one near) by yiqie

That’s just the thing, isn’t it? Wei Ying feels nothing. He doesn’t feel anything, and this emptiness should scare him. He knows he should be scared. He wants to be scared. He isn’t. Fear itself is never scary; fear is just a response. It means that your body wants you alive. It’s the absence of terror that scares him.

Words: 76.000/ poetic & hopeful/ very well written

[brunettepenguin]

so come over now and talk me down

hi! i wrote a one-shot for the mdzs / the untamed fandom and i’d love it if u checked it out! it’s super soft and fluffy w just a hint of angst thrown in, but lots of comfort :) basically just post-canon wangxian being sappy and in love, but what’s new? 

(link to the fic on ao3 at the bottom of the post)

summary: Wei Wuxian is perfectly content with his second chance at life. How could he not be when he's currently snuggled up with the love of his life as they watch the sun rise over the Cloud Recesses? Both the body of Nie Mingjue and the evil of Jin Guangyao has been dealt with. The most exciting part of his day is going to feed the rabbits with A-Yuan, and occasionally he and Lan Wangji go on night hunts. His relationship with Jiang Cheng is a work-in-progress, but he's almost positive his brother is about to crack.

There's just one thing he has to ask his husband...

characters: Lan Wangji & Wei Wuxian

word count: 1901

“Lan Zhan, why didn’t you tell me about your feelings for me when we were younger?”

They’re laying in the Jingshi, just Lan Zhan and he, wrapped up in each other’s arms as they are every morning. It’s a little after seven, still much too early in Wei Wuxian’s opinion, but he was woken up when Lan Zhan snuggled back into bed beside him after his morning duties. Wei Wuxian is normally a heavy sleeper (anyone will attest to that, especially Jiang Cheng), but he’d had a dream the night before about his time at the Cloud Recesses all those years ago and was more restless than usual.

Wei Wuxian can still hardly believe that his Lan Zhan had fallen for him when he’d done nothing but cause trouble and annoy him half to death for months on end. He’d thought he was a goner for sure when he replaced Lan Zhan’s poetry with one of Nie Huaisang’s special books (he technically still owed him for that, but he was in no hurry to remind the sect leader). Not that he was complaining of course, if his utter lack of discipline and decorum was what attracted Lan Zhan he was all the more glad for it, knowing he’d never have to pretend around the man.

“It was not the right time.” Lan Zhan responds, hand lazily tracing circles on Wei Wuxian’s back as the latter leans into his touch with a sigh.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian whines. “That’s a horrible excuse. You could have just told me how you felt - to think, I thought you hated me for years!”

He feels Lan Zhan tense under his hands, but before he can apologize Lan Zhan speaks again, voice soft but firm. “Never. I could never hate Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian feels his ears go hot.

“Lan Zhan you can’t just say these things!” He splutters. “At least give me a warning before you go and say something like that.”

“It is the truth,” Lan Zhan states, face unbearably fond as he gazes at Wei Wuxian. The latter buries his face in his husband’s neck, unable to look Lan Zhan in the eyes any longer lest he’ll melt into a puddle with how hot his face is. He can feel his cheeks burn as they rest on Lan Zhan’s cool skin.

“Well,” We Wuxian starts, knowing he doesn’t have a thick enough face to say this while he can see Lan Zhan laying there looking at him like that. “You should have at least told me after you so brazenly stole my first kiss.”

Link to continue reading: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25395484

[boxoftheskyking]

Something Good, Part Six

There are so many babies you guys. I miss baby snuggles

In which children don’t sleep

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

---

Liquor doesn’t technically bring him peace—he supposes Yanli and Wen Qing were always right about that. But it certainly doesn’t upset him, and the buzz is helping him focus on the little doses of pleasantness in this tiny closet room. A storm outside always helps remind him of warmth inside, and while there is a leak in the corner that drips against the floor, the mattress is dry, the blankets are scratchy but warm, and there’s a calm yellow glow visible in the cracks in the floor, rise and fall of tipsy conversation from the late night crowd downstairs.

He doesn’t think he’ll sleep tonight, but he’s letting his mind wander when a huge crack of thunder jostles him out of his daydream. The rain intensifies, the drip in the corner shifting from a two-step to a hurried run of triplets. He almost misses the tiny knock on his door.

“W-Wei-qianbei?” a hesitant voice floats in from the hall. Wei Wuxian tucks away his empty bottles and sits up, wiping over his face and schooling it into a sober and attentive expression.

He cracks open the door to find little Lan Sizhui, ghostly in his white sleeping robes and chewing on the edge of his sleeve. He looks uncertain, eyes flitting from the open door to back down the hallway. He looks almost about to leave when lightning splits the air around them, followed by a mighty crash, and he closes his eyes and dives into Wei Wuxian’s arms.

“Oh, A-Yuan,” Wei Wuxian murmurs, laughing lightly into the facefull of bed-hair. “It’s okay. It’s just a storm.”

Sizhui mutters something inaudible into his neck but refuses to let go when Wei Wuxian tries to shift him away. He hauls the child up into his lap and settles back on the mattress, leaning against the wall and away from the insistent drip of the rain.

“What’s the matter, little one?”

Sizhui wipes at his red face with his sleeve, and Wei Wuxian leans in closer to hear.

“There’s so much water,” Sizhui cries. “What if the ghouls come back in the water?”

“They won’t. They can’t live in the rain, only in big bodies of water that stay in one place, like a lake. You see this drip in the corner here? Give me your hand.”

He gently pulls Sizhui over to the leaky corner, holding his hand into the path of the water. Sizhui flinches away, but Wei Wuxian insists, tucking his fingers into the stream

“You feel this? All the little drops? Even big rain is made of tiny drops that are far too small for a ghoul to live in.”

Sizhui’s brow furrows and he pulls his hand back and forth, in and out of the water. “What— what if you’re wrong?” he asks, looking up at Wei Wuxian with big round eyes.

“A-Yuan, I promise you are safe here. I will always protect you, and so will Hanguang Jun and Zewu Jun.”

“But what if—” Sizhui trails off, chewing on his lip and resting his forehead on Wei Wuxian’s collarbone. “What if something gets you? Or Baba?”

That answers that, Wei Wuxian things, stamping down on the curiosity. If Lan Wangji is your father, then who… But he’s not going to ask a four-year-old to recite his lineage.

“Even if the water ghouls came here, they’re no match for us!”

“But you… “ Sizhui looks down at his hands. “Hanguang Jun had to save you.”

Isn’t it just like children—so sweet, so kind, so accurate with the knives they don’t even know they’re holding.

“And he’s here. And if he needs help, there’s a whole class of seniors right downstairs. And if they need help, Wen Ning is here, and all your friends. And we’ll all take care of each other. Yes?”

Sizhui nods and leans in for another hug. Wei Wuxian is just settling in for a long term cuddle when another crack of thunder makes Sizhui bury his face in Wei Wuxian’s middle. Wei Wuxian is rubbing circles into his back when he hears another knock on the door.

“Come in,” he sing-songs, and Ouyang Zizhen pokes his head in. “Scared of the storm?” Wei Wuxian asks.

“Of course not!” Zizhen’s eyes dart around the room before finding Sizhui’s huddled form. “I was— I was checking on A-Yuan. I thought he might be scared.”

Wei Wuxian grins and claps him on the shoulder. “Of course you did. Tell me, how many other disciples are up worried about A-Yuan?”

Zizhen chews on his lip. “Everyone?”

Wei Wuxian grins wider and tugs on Zizhen’s ear. “Well, we’d better go reassure them all.”

He bundles Sizhui into his arms and nods at Zizhen to lead the way. 

I may be useless in battle, he thinks, the sting of it fading with each step they take. But this I can do.

As expected, all the juniors are awake, some still lying top-to-toe and others bundled into blanket piles on the floor. When the door opens, nine little faces turn to him like a cluster of round, startled moons.

“Ah, disciples!” he says cheerily. “Your poor Wei-qianbei has a leak in his room. Will you allow this humble servant to join you in this nice dry room for the night?”

“Yay!” Lan Feifei shouts, popping up from the end of the farthest bed and immediately toppling over onto Lan Ting. Wei Wuxian wonders if spending so much time with the bunnies is teaching them more than he and Lan Wangji combined.

The children make room for him in the middle of the room, huddling in close around him on all sides.

“What, no one is tired? After that long walk down the mountain?”

Wen Ning wrinkles his nose, looking around at the younger kids like he’s responsible for their wakefulness. Thunder shakes the walls and the little ones cover their ears.

“It’s pretty loud, huh?” Wei Wuxian asks.

“It’s loud like the big wave was,” Lan Ting pipes up, worried little eyes shining in the lamplight like polished river stones.

“Ah, yes, that was scary, wasn’t it?”

Nods all around. The best thing about children, he thinks to himself, reaching out to work a tangle out of Su Meiling’s hair, is that they aren’t yet ashamed to be afraid. He smiles a little sadly to himself, thinking about Jiang Cheng. Remember when he used to come to his big brother, say he was scared?

“Do you know what I like to do when I’m scared?”

Lan Yixian gasps from over his shoulder. “Wei-qianbei, you get scared too?” She’s seven, she maybe hasn’t ever heard that from an adult before. Knowing the Lans, their stoic nobility, he wouldn’t be surprised.

“Yes, Xian-Xian, I get scared just like you. And I’ll tell you a secret.” He lowers his voice, relishing in their held breath, leaning in. “Hanguang Jun gets scared, too.”

“No he doesn’t!” Su Ming declares.

“Sure he does. Ask him sometime.”

The gasp of horror that whooshes around the room threatens to put out the lamps. Wei Wuxian laughs in delight.

“Scarier than the storm, huh?”

“What do you do when you are scared, Wei-qianbei?” Lan Ting asks.

“I’ll tell you. Sometimes I feel scared, and when I feel scared it’s usually because I don’t feel very strong or powerful. After all, I am not a mighty cultivator like all of you!” It hurts slightly less to say it to children. The more he says it, the easier it goes down, like building up a tolerance to straight strong liquor.

“So what I like to do is think about all the things that keep me safe. Here, I’ll show you.” He sets Sizhui down beside him and holds his hands flat up on his knees, just like Uncle Jiang taught him when he was small and still had screaming nightmares. “Let’s see, to begin, I am glad for my strong legs that help me run and my strong arms that help me carry lazy disciples.” He raises one hand on an inhale and pushes his palm outward on the exhale. Focus on your breath, Uncle Jiang says in his head, kind and patient and dead. 

“I am glad for my strong lungs which help me yell for help when I need it.” He lifts and pushes his other hand, and a few of the children start to mimic him. “Good job, breathe nice and slow. I am glad for my talismans, which help keep me safe.”

“Will you teach us talismans?” Lan Bin asks, perking up like a rabbit smelling sweet grass. 

“If you are very good and very quiet. Here, Wen Ning, you try one.”

Wen Ning looks around, embarrassed, but seeing most of the children’s eyes closed he says, “I am glad for my jiejie who taught me medicine to help when I am sick.” The room breathes together.

“Yao Hualing?” Wei Wuxian prompts.

“I am— I don’t know. I am glad for my Mama who taught me how to punch really hard.”

“Very good. Zizhen?”

“I am glad for Wei-qianbei who takes care of us and feeds us.”

“Ah, sweet boy. Jingyi?”

“I am glad for being small so I can hide from a monster.”

A crack of thunder, but only a few jump.

“Very good everyone. Now we can all say at the same time, nice and quiet. You can say whatever you like, no one is listening.”

Wei Wuxian looks around at all of them, eyes closed and breath stirring loose locks of hair. He listens to the breathy chorus of gratitude: “My gege who protects…” “Hanguang Jun who…” “... because I am good at…” “...who taught me to…” “Wei-qianbei who cares for me…”

He is suddenly glad their eyes are closed, because his throat goes tight and tears start pricking the corners of his eyes. He raises his right hand on the proper inhale and wipes at his cheeks quickly. 

When he looks up again, the door is cracked and Lan Wangji is staring at him from the darkness of the hallway. His hair is down from its customary ornament, falling softly along his cheeks, his neck. Wei Wuxian sniffs and tries to school his expression into something professional without stopping the gentle inhale exhale. Lan Wangji is staring through to the back of his skull, it feels like, unblinking, before he looks around at the room of murmuring, meditating children. His lips part as if to say something—disciples should be sleeping! You are not to teach them anything! Meditation is practiced in silence!—when Lan Sizhui’s little voice carries over the room.

“I am glad for my Baba who loves me and teaches me to be strong and for my Wei-qianbei who loves me and teaches me to be clever.”

Lan Wangji’s mouth stays slightly open but his eyes snap to his son, watching his calm breath, his tiny wrists sticking out of his sleeves on every exhaled push. When he looks back to Wei Wuxian there is something broken open in his expression and Wei Wuxian almost wants to close his eyes against the shine of it. Almost.

He’s not sure what his face is doing, but something about it must be right because Lan Wangji holds his gaze for a long, long moment before nodding once and sliding the door closed. Wei Wuxian buries his face in his hands for a minute, shaking for reasons he couldn’t quite explain.

“Wei-qianbei?” Lan Ting says, louder than the rest. “I’m out of things to be glad for.”

“Me too!” comes another voice from somewhere.

“Very well. Good job everyone, I think we beat the storm. Now your humble Wei-qianbei is very sleepy, and it’s going to be morning soon. And then we need to climb all the way back up the mountain together. Let’s all try to sleep, can we?”

With a gentle rustles of cloth and a couple of sleepy hums, Wei Wuxian is surrounded by a circle of black-and-white mounds. He feels like he’s sitting on the top of Gusu Mountain, a few dark rocks peeking through the snow. But, like in a dream of winter, it’s warm, quiet, the only wind to be felt is as soft as breath.

Part Seven

[ibijau]

Burn it down AU // on AO3 // extras on AO3

A-Yuan, (some of) his dads, and bunnies

A-Yuan observed Wei Wuxian with a polite expression but neutral. For some reason, Lan Wangji couldn’t help feeling disappointed. He knew that A-Yuan did not remember his life in the Burial Mounds, he had warned Wei Wuxian, they had agreed not to say anything yet to avoid overwhelming the little boy, and still… still Lan Wangji had hoped against all hope that his son, Wei Wuxian’s son, would show some acknowledgement of their connection.

Wei Wuxian looked as though he felt the same anticipation. But A-Yuan simply didn’t know what to make of this unexpected new friend of his father, and did not seem particularly interested either.

"Where is Nie-ge?" A-Yuan asked at last. "He said we would see the rabbits after class." 

Lan Wangji tensed, but before he could start thinking how to explain Nie Huaisang might stop being part of their lives, Wei Wuxian started cackling. 

"Rabbits? What rabbits? Lan Zhan, I thought you didn't like rabbits?" 

"Of course he likes them," A-Yuan gently protested. "They're our rabbits. Father taught me how to hold them well. Do you like rabbits, Mo gongzi?"

"Roasted, yes. Ah, that's a joke!" Wei Wuxian exclaimed when A-Yuan gasped in horror. "Of course I like bunnies. They're small and fuzzy and cute, what's not to like, right ?" 

A-Yuan cautiously nodded his agreement, but still looked with suspicion at Wei Wuxian before turning to his father.

“Can we still go see the rabbits when Nie-ge arrives? We can take Mo gongzi and show him how to be nice to them.”

“Nie-ge cannot come.”

Not then, not ever again, quite possibly. Lan Wangji was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Nie Huaisang had so carelessly pushed Mo Xuanyu to his death. The fact that he’d been right in his assessment that they needed Wei Wuxian’s help to get justice for Nie Mingjue did not help. Neither did the joy Lan Wangji couldn’t help feeling at having Wei Wuxian near him again. The guiltier he felt about appreciating the situation, the more he resented Nie Huaisang for giving him what he wanted most in such a manner.

After being told that Nie Huaisang could not be there, A-Yuan did not insist. Although Nie Huaisang always tried to prioritise his step-son when they could be together, there had always been moments when he simply couldn’t make himself available.

“I would still be happy to see the bunnies,” Wei Wuxian offered. “If A-Yu… if Lan Yuan is willing to show them to me.”

A-Yuan looked to his father for permission, which Lan Wangji could not have refused even if he had wanted. What his son and the love of his life wanted, he could only grant them.

As they walked to the rabbit’s pen, A-Yuan patiently explained to Wei Wuxian everything that he needed to know about rabbits, from how to best handle them to their favourite foods. It was a little disconnected, and sometimes he had to turn to Lan Wangji to confirm something. Still, it was clear A-Yuan greatly enjoyed this chance to teach someone he thought was an older boy, and Wei Wuxian’s enraptured attention to his every word made the experience all the more pleasant for the little boy. Last time he had gotten a chance to introduce someone to the rabbits it had been his friend Lan Jingyi who, while otherwise very pleasant, just wasn’t one for lectures of that sort.

A-Yuan was impossibly gentle when, after sitting in the grass, he caught one of the slower rabbits and handed it to Wei Wuxian. In turn Wei Wuxian showed great care in petting the animal exactly as he was being instructed to. When A-Yuan was satisfied that his father's friend would not mistreat their pets, he laid down on his stomach and started playing with the other rabbits, though still keeping an eye on Wei Wuxian. 

"The two I gave you were both males," Wei Wuxian remarked, burying his fingers in soft white fur. "And even if they can try, two males won't end up with such a big family without a little help. Did you get more?" 

"I was given a breeding pair later. The one you are holding is one you gave me." 

Wei Wuxian shot him a surprised look, and lifted the rabbit to inspect it closely. 

"I didn't know they lived this old! And the other?" 

Lan Wangji pointed at another rabbit, hopping around them at a distance, as if trying to check what was happening to its friend but not quite trusting this stranger yet.

"Lan Zhan, you must have taken very good care of them," Wei Wuxian complimented him, making his traitorous heart beat a little faster. "And not just of them," he added, gazing at A-Yuan feeding blades of grass to the rabbits. "I would never have guessed that Lan Zhan was such a nurturing person. You always act so cold, but could it be you're really a soft person after all?" 

"Ridiculous," Lan Wangji muttered, turning away in embarrassment. 

Wei Wuxian laughed, loud enough to startle the rabbit and earn a stern look from A-Yuan. 

"You have to be quiet," he ordered. "They like the quiet." 

"And do you like it too?" Wei Wuxian teased. "Is Lan Yuan a rabbit as well? I think you'd make a good one. You have the right nose for it."

Letting the rabbit he held hop away to its mate, Wei Wuxian leaned toward A-Yuan and tapped his finger on the tip of his son's nose. A-Yuan grinned even as he pushed away Wei Wuxian's hand. 

"I wouldn't mind being a rabbit here," he admitted. "They have a good life. But I prefer being a person, because rabbits can't cultivate. Are you a cultivator, Mo gongzi ? Can you fly a sword? I'm going to start learning soon, but everyone says it's hard at first." 

The question startled Wei Wuxian whose smile trembled for a second. Lan Wangji had never found out what had happened to Wei Wuxian to force him away from orthodoxy, but there had to have been a reason. A person as skilled as Wei Wuxian would not have abandoned his sword without good reason. 

"I've learned a little," Wei Wuxian said at last, perfectly cheerful once more. "I can't really do it myself, but I'd gladly give you tips when the time comes."

"It's probably not until next year. Will you still be with us then?" 

At that question, both of them turned to look at Lan Wangji who took a moment to consider how he might answer that. 

"If it is agreeable to all of us," he said, knowing that Wei Wuxian had never enjoyed the rules of the Cloud Recesses, that he had no reason to stay. Wei Wuxian could ask to leave, to take A-Yuan with him, and Lan Wangji would have to accept.

He would not be his father.

"We'll see how things go," Wei Wuxian said with a laugh. "It gets boring here but… knowing there are rabbits and a Lan Yuan to play with might make the Cloud Recesses a little more bearable." 

"And you can keep the rabbits when we go visit Nie-ge," A-Yuan realised. "Or would you come with us? Since you are friends with Father, are you friends with Nie-ge as well?" 

"Well, I know him, and we used to have fun together. Saying we're friends might be pushing it a bit, we haven't really talked in a long while. Growing up is like that ahah!" 

A-Yuan threw him an unimpressed look. 

"You talk like you are so old," he complained. "And you should be friends with Nie-ge. He is nice and funny, even if he is sad a lot now. He misses his brother a lot, and he has so much work, and…" 

"No gossip," Lan Wangji interrupted. 

Immediately A-Yuan stopped speaking, a slight blush on his cheeks at being caught in fault. 

"Sorry, Father. But Mo gongzi should try being friends with Nie-ge if he stays with us. Will we all have dinner in the Jingshi tonight? They could talk and become friends."

"Nie-ge cannot come," Lan Wangji said. 

"But he always eats with us," A-Yuan protested. "Even when he's busy. You say he always has to eat with us." 

It was a rule Lan Wangji had tried to enforce during their visits in Qinghe. It ensured Nie Huaisang took care of himself even when busy, but it was also for Lan Wangji’s own comfort. In their short time of living together he had learned to enjoy having another person around, and it was nice to have that again. Certainly he sometimes had dinner privately in the Jingshi with A-Yuan and that was pleasant, but it was different with another adult.

If Wei Wuxian took A-Yuan when he left the Cloud Recesses, Lan Wangji would go back to solitary meals or to the dining halls. Both were unpleasant options.

“Father, let’s go tell Nie-ge that he must eat with us,” A-Yuan suggested, standing up and dusting his robes. “It’s the rule.”

“The circumstances are exceptional,” Lan Wangji replied. “Nie-ge cannot free himself this time.”

There was no hiding the disappointment on A-Yuan’s face. Clearly this was a lot to happen at once, between the introduction of Wei Wuxian and the sudden disappearance of Nie Huaisang in spite of them having made plans together. Lan Wangji wished things were different but… it was a lot for him as well, and he was still trying to make sense of it all.

Still, A-Yuan was a clever boy, and he understood that on rare occasions, some rules had to be bent, though it could not be done lightly. Once again he accepted what his father told him, but Lan Wangji knew he would soon have to decide whether or not to keep Nie Huaisang in their lives, and how to explain it if he didn’t. The truth was too awful to be shared, but saying nothing might make A-Yuan feel abandoned and Lan Wangji could not be so cruel.

As the light dimmed around there, the time came to leave the rabbits behind and return to the Jingshi. A-Yuan was a little pensive at first, but Wei Wuxian kept trying to drag him into conversation about his life in the Cloud Recesses and quickly the little boy was chatting about everything from classes to Lan Jingyi, with asides for his favourite foods and his troubles writing certain characters.

“You are a very accomplished young man,” Wei Wuxian remarked as they entered the Jingshi, his tone half teasing and half genuine pride. “Your fathers have done a good job with you.”

A-Yuan beamed at the compliment. So did Lan Wangji, in his own manner, and to avoid being teased over it, he left the house to go request that dinner be brought to them. There were few people in the world he trusted to watch over A-Yuan in his absence, but Wei Wuxian was now on top of that list.

By the time Lan Wangji returned, having ordered their dinner, Wei Wuxian and A-Yuan were sitting together on the little boy’s bed. Wei Wuxian, as usual, was sitting improperly with his legs crossed and his feet on the mattress, A-Yuan on his lap reading a book aloud. Or at least, attempting to. Every other sentence, Wei Wuxian would interrupt him to comment, or argue, or just for the sheer pleasure of making A-Yuan sigh in barely contained frustration. They both looked up when they noticed Lan Wangji’s returned, and both smiled at him with such warmth that his heart skipped a beat.

Even through the tormenting guilt of knowing what it had cost, the death of Mo Xuanyu and the likely loss of his friendship with Nie Huaisang, Lan Wangji felt happier than he had in years. It might not last, there was no reason for Wei Wuxian to stay in the Cloud Recesses, and if he left he would take A-Yuan with him.

But for now Lan Wangji was allowed to have this taste of the family he’d long dreamed of, and he would enjoy it as long as he could.

[phoenixrisesoncemore]

But Whose Deontology?

The Untamed: three-fifths mark

OK, @thearrogantemu​ I finally had a chance to look at a non-work screen for long enough to watch some more Untamed; through episode 30 now! Oh boy. Spoilers for anyone who isn’t this far yet below the cut:

I feel like this show didn’t exactly *hide* that it was interested in poking holes in everyone’s moral system, but it did spend a lot of time... not distracting us, really, but using the other assorted comical, tender, and otherwise emotional aspects of the show to deepen our investment in these characters’ lives and choices before it started really making its moves. I suspect it wouldn’t have had the same effect otherwise.

The long run up is a pacing I’m quite the fan of from almost three decades of JRPGs that start out as light-hearted adventures about teenage angst only to turn into philosophical ruminations on God and the nature of the universe (see my favorite example: Xenogears). Even The Lord of the Rings does something... similar, albeit not intentionally on the part of the author. It’s actually one of my favorite “tropes” in storytelling: the tone shift—the moment the light-hearted and comfortingly simple reveals itself to be something much wider and deeper and which will leave you unsettled in its wake.(1)

I’m really quite impressed with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo. Xiao Zhan manages to believably play the process of aging from arrogant and ornery but innocent and lovable “student” in Cloud Recesses, to the (still arrogant and ornery but lovable) rebellious “hero” during the Wen indoctrination, to the (still arrogant but lovable) young man forced to grow up too fast when his adoptive parents are killed, to the Master of Demonic Cultivation and head of The World’s Most Wholesome Farming Co-op (why cultivate only demons when you can cultivate turnips, too!?).(2) And he manages to play it all as believably the same character, always deeply expressive but also somehow... authentic... even when he is putting on a show: his play-acted irresponsible argumentativeness with Wen Qing; his self-infantilization whenever he wants Yanli to mother him. The latter would be laughable if we were to take it as entirely straight-faced—he knows he is playing childish, and he knows that she knows, even if he does legitimately want to be mothered. Jiang Cheng on the other hand seems to never handle the reality of Wei Wuxian as well as Wei Wuxian handles the reality of Jiang Cheng...

I understand there was some criticism of Yibo’s perceived lack of expressiveness when the show first came out, but I think he’s doing a fantastic job portraying a deeply stoic character whose emotional turmoil is buried under mountains of learned and self-enforced composure. It’s not like he’s missing beats; he’s responding, it’s just subtle. He’s responsible for two of my favorite moments so far: when he first smiles ever so slightly when he sees the lantern Wuxian has made him with the rabbit drawing(3) and the scene of him kneeling in the snow as punishment. I don’t know if it’s the lighting or the fact that it’s one of the few times he’s not carrying tension in his eyebrows, but he looks SO YOUNG in that shot. Honestly, he looks more AT PEACE in that shot than I think he does at almost any other time in the show so far. It feels to me like, in that moment, he has no regrets either about what he did nor about the fact that he should have to atone for it. Like he has internalized some sense that both things are right and can exist in tension. The weird effect of this growth next to Wei Wuxian’s feels like watching one of the two grow older (Wuxian) while the other grows younger (Wangji).

Now, I’m a sucker for every last story where two highly disparate-seeming people move from from some variation of dislike (either on the part of one or both) to friendship to, sometimes, something more (no, no BL here, none at all *looks the other way*). Certainly Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have very different personalities. Wei Wuxian has little regard for rules, authority, tradition, taboos, or social etiquette: he uses Lan Wangji’s ming(4) almost as soon as he meets him! The way he interacts with objects and spaces (and personal space!) shows his lack of reverence/respect for the people and things others expect him to have reverence for. He has no problem questioning what everyone else seems to see as obvious up to the point of outright suggesting the use of dark magic. Because...well, why not?? Because “they said so?”

It’s not that he doesn’t KNOW the rules. Another of my absolute favorite moments is during the Wen indoctrination when Wei Wuxian starts reciting not the Wen clan principles, but the Lan clan principles! Sure, he lacks the expected respect for sources of authority be they personal or ideological, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t KNOW them. He’s obviously naturally talented, gifted, a fast learner, curious, but also—and crucially—he has a very strong moral compass! He does not tolerate bullies, especially when they turn their attention to the vulnerable, like Wen Chao.(5) Yanli notes that their father always favors those with moral integrity and who does he favor? Wei Wuxian.

And this is where he and Lan Wangji are more alike than Wangji initially thinks, and why I love that moment, just after they release the lanterns, when you see, just for a second, the surprise on his face at the content of Wei Wuxian’s prayer: that he always be able to “stand with justice and live with no regrets.” It is, I imagine, the moment when it really hits Wangji that this rebel he finds himself irrationally attracted to truly is *good* despite the fact that he shows no outward signs of respecting the same sources of moral authority Wangji does.

So what is the main difference? Where the rules come from. Who makes the rules? Both of them are pretty sure they know.

Lan Wangji gets his moment to present his source just after their rooftop duel when he catches Wei Wuxian drinking: the Lan Clan principles chiseled right into stone. All 3000 of them. Interestingly, even though Wei Wuxian can and does memorize the code and seems perfectly happy with the notion of moral principles in general, I’ll wager a guess that he is confused by the very idea that a moral code would be so strict and unchanging and inflexible that it could be chiseled into stone *in the first place* or that it would *need to be memorized*. Surely you’d just...”know?” Besides, morality is too contextual to treat this way surely?

As a CLH (Confirmed Lifelong Heretic) my sympathies admittedly lie more with Wei Wuxian than Lan Wangji. It’s not that traditional codes of ethics and conduct are bad things. These are the things that provide stability across entire cultures and peoples. If they’re written in stone, at least that means they’re something everyone has a greater chance of pointing to and agreeing on.(7) And just as Lan Wangji has to learn that there are moral codes that aren’t written in stone and that individual minds can have very clear senses of right and wrong outside of group structures, Wei Wuxian has to learn to temper his arrogance—that his actions, for however right he *thinks* they are, can and do have consequences he would not intend for those he loves, as when he stops himself from calling to Wangji during the hunt. I have a feeling he’s going to be learning more...

Then there’s that whole conversation from ep. 29 as Lan Wangji prepares to leave the burial mounds which is just full of whammies (set, naturally, against the exceedingly domestic reality of the community as a whole and their exceedingly sweet interactions with a-Yuan). Wei Wuxian says: “But let yourself be the judge of what is right and what is wrong, leave others’ comments aside, and care little about gain and loss. What I should do. I know it very well. I believe that I’ll be able to control it well.” And then there’s that moment where you can actually feel Lan Wangji’s heart drop into the pit of his stomach as he presses his eyes closed.

This is the reverse of the moment when Wangji directed Wuxian’s attention to the list of Lan clan principles, so solid they are written in stone.(8)

Then there is that wonderful bit about their respective paths—Lan Wangji’s path vs. Wei Wuxian’s path: the wide avenue vs the one-log bridge. I assume this is a literal translation of the Mandarin. Is it an idiom? If so, I may mangle its meaning terribly and for that I am sorry. But it seems to me that a wide avenue is safe, easy, populated; a single-log bridge is comparatively dangerous and only one person can walk it. Which seems a pretty good metaphor for the differences in whose rule-book each of the leads chooses. Not to mention, with my Western ears, it sounds a WHOLE lot like a “straight and narrow path.” Interesting then, that it is The Master of Demonic Cultivation who is choosing it, while Lan Wangji—with his brightness and discipline and clarity—is following the ���easy” way.

So, there it is: whose deontology is the right one? How do you choose?

It’s the epistemological aspect of the question of ethics that Newbigin gets right in that quote I posted the other day. Honestly, I disagree with a great deal (like, a lot) of what Newbigin says in that book, and I think he spends far too much time running himself in ever tighter Calvinist circles, (not to mention I have little interest in missiology and am highly skeptical of evangelism). But! I appreciate that he does, at least, recognize the danger of believing we have insulated ourselves completely from uncertainty or of expecting that certainty is even a thing possible to achieve.

But where do we choose to anchor our axioms? And why? Whose deontology is the right deontology? The rules written on parchment and stone? Or the rules written on our souls? Remembering, of course, that both are fallible. 16 years in the future, will the two leads have changed their minds at all?

And now with any luck, I’ll have a free weekend in which to watch the last 20 episodes, assuming no one wants me to do adult things like house cleaning or completing design projects people are paying me for.(10)

Like how Tolkien switches register from the low and comedic to the high and romantic but you’re fully aware it’s all really part of the same story and suddenly, bam!, you recognize that those aspects of life are somehow not able to be disentangled.

OMG is this an intentional play on “cultivation”? Sometimes I can’t tell what might be getting lost in translation, and I’m certainly too ignorant of Chinese culture, mythology, and folklore to really appreciate everything happening in this show, not least of which due to the language barrier.

He is, interestingly, far more moved by it than the drawing Wuxian does of *him* two episodes beforehand—is this merely the result of the progression of their relationship? This is post-cold springs after all.

That took some research to understand!

The main “vulnerable” character that he never seems to swoop in to save is Meng Yao and I wonder if it’s because he can sense something “off” about him. I felt bad for Meng Yao at first but he always put me on edge. Honestly, is there anyone who trusts Meng Yao as far as they can throw him? *looks at Elrond* OK, anyone except Elrond?(6)

Honestly, before I started watching this I saw that one of the characters was being referred to as Elrond and I wondered, going into it, if I’d know which character it was, and then Lan Xichen walked in and I was like “oh, yeah, obviously!” Seriously, what is it about him? Is it his physical appearance? The way he holds himself? His outfit? His pattern of speaking? How is this person so obviously coded “Elrond?”

Except they don’t really. That’s never how it works.

And interestingly, when looking at his name: “Wei Ying,  Ying is his 名, meaning, baby; Wuxian is his 字, it comes from an ancient prose “喜乐无羡赏,忿怒无羡刑”, which means when you’re delighted don’t reward without restraint,  when you’re angry don’t punish without restraint. Wuxian here means exercise your power reasonably.”(9)

The richness of the world in this show really appeals to me as does the carefully choreographed costume design, productions design, and cinematography (seriously, everyone needs to dress like this all the time; end of story; I have spoken). There have been some amazing shots that I can only assume are drone footage that have been ADRed?

20 years in and adulthood still sucks. 0 of 5 stars. Would not recommend.

[enbyleighlines]

Wangji Week

Day 5: Bearer of Light

—

The news said there would be a huge thunderstorm headed their way. But Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian both underestimated it, it seems.

The cracks of thunder and howling winds are keeping A-Yuan awake. He flat out refuses to go to bed, to separate from his Xian-gege and Ji-gege. And so, with all his infinite wisdom, Wei Wuxian had built a large fort in the living room with couch cushions and blankets.

It’s somewhat of a tight fit, for two grown men and a four-year-old. And Cabbage and Carrot, the family bunny rabbits, are in there with them, too.

But there are no complaints. A-Yuan is sitting in the center of it all, playing out a scene with his various plastic toys. He loves making them talk to each other. The toys are currently putting on a little play. Their stage is Cabbage’s fluffy rounded back.

After a year of sharing the same roof, the rabbit is well acclimated to the toddler’s shenanigans. Cabbage remains still, aside from the occasional twitch of the nose.

Carrot, on the other hand, is utilizing whatever little free space there is to hop around in circles.

Wei Wuxian is tucked under Lan Wangji’s arm, and despite the tight quarters, they have found a position that is comfortable for the both of them. They watch the impromptu performance of A-Yuan’s toys in respectful silence.

“We can’t go to the park,” one of A-Yuan’s toys says to another, “It’s night out.”

It’s amusing, really, to see how much A-Yuan soaks up from his surroundings. Lan Wangji smiles, but does not laugh. He has learned that A-Yuan takes it personally when people laugh at him.

Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, has to muffle his snicker into Lan Wangji’s neck. His warm breath tickles.

“But you said we could!” A-Yuan’s other toy protests in an identical voice.

“Oh, fine. We can go.”

The toys walk up Cabbage’s neck. Presumably, Cabbage’s forehead is the park.

“Here we are! Let’s play!”

Wei Wuxian giggles some more. “I can’t,” he whispers into Lan Wangji’s ear, “I can’t handle this.”

“Don’t laugh,” Lan Wangji tells him.

That, of course, only makes Wei Wuxian laugh all the harder. He curls up, holding his stomach with one hand, and muffling himself with the other.

A-Yuan looks up at them. His face is all scrunched up. It’s unclear to Lan Wangji if this means he’s angry or confused.

Just to play it safe, Lan Wangji apologizes. “We’re sorry. Go on.”

But A-Yuan tosses his hands into the air with dramatic exasperation. “You’re supposed to clap,” he tells them, in a dead serious tone.

“Oh? Is the play over?” Lan Wangji asks.

But Wei Wuxian doesn’t wait for an answer. He pulls himself together and begins to applaud, loudly.

A-Yuan smiles.

And then all the lights go out.

For just a moment, the world is still. Frozen in time. Devoid of light or sound.

But then A-Yuan shrieks.

Everything erupts into chaos. Lan Wangji gets entangled with Wei Wuxian’s flailing limbs as they both instinctively move to comfort A-Yuan. Both rabbits take off in opposing directions, uncaring of who they step over to make their escape. The shriek has morphed into wet sobs and garbled gibberish.

Lan Wangji tries to reorient himself. He finds A-Yuan in the darkness, and pulls the child into his lap. Wei Wuxian, who grabbed A-Yuan at the same time, ends up being pulled along with him.

“It’s okay,” both of them are saying, “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

Their touch seems to soothe A-Yuan’s anxiety. His crying quiets, and he ends up just trembling in their awkward mutual embrace. His breaths are still sniffly, but they’re evening out.

“The power just went out,” Lan Wangji explains, once he feels like A-Yuan has recovered enough to hear it.

“Must be the storm,” Wei Wuxian says, “Do you have a flashlight?”

“Mn.”

But Lan Wangji is reluctant to leave his boyfriend and foster child alone, even if it’s only for a minute. Now that the initial shock has worn off, there’s something comforting about being bundled up together in the dark. Lan Wangji wants to savor the feeling.

Wei Wuxian doesn’t rush him. Instead, he just fumbles around until he can take Lan Wangji’s hand.

It’s A-Yuan who loses patience. “Ji-gege, flashlight?” He asks.

“Of course.” Lan Wangji blinks, trying to make out the outline of A-Yuan’s head. But it’s not use. Everything is the same shade of black. So he makes his best estimate, and presses a tender kiss to where he assumes A-Yuan’s forehead would be. He misses and kisses hair. Close enough.

Then Lan Wangji detangles himself from the comfy family huddle, and heads off to find the flashlight.

It’s a little easier to see outside the fort, though the windows don’t cast much light. The rain is so thick, it completely obscures the sky.

Lan Wangji remembers the layout of his apartment well, though. He navigates around the furniture without much of an issue, and makes his way to the kitchen, where the flashlight lies.

Finding the flashlight is easy, but it’s only half of the battle. When Lan Wangji flips the switch, nothing happens. The batteries are dead.

And so Lan Wangji has to shift around his drawers for replacement batteries. This is a far more arduous task, because he has to find the right size, based on what he thinks will fit in the flashlight. Then he has to insert them all both ways, not knowing which side is positive and which is negative.

As Lan Wangji fiddles with the batteries, he can hear Wei Wuxian’s voice in the other room.

Wei Wuxian is singing a silly little song to A-Yuan. It doesn’t rhyme, and the melody isn’t particularly consistent, either. Which means Wei Wuxian is making it up as he goes, which is even more endearing, somehow.

After a minute, A-Yuan starts chiming in during the chorus, which thankfully stays the same each time.

Lan Wangji’s heart clenches. Wei Wuxian and Wen Yuan— he loves them with a depth that is unfathomable, even to himself. But that’s fine. To try to describe it would flatten it. He just wants to ruminate in it, relish the heavy weight of it in his heart.

It takes some time, but finally Lan Wangji solves the flashlight puzzle. This time, when he flips the switch, it immediately emits a powerful beam of light that momentarily hurts to look at.

Triumphant, Lan Wangji returns. He shines the light on the blanket wall of the fort. Wei Wuxian and A-Yuan’s shadows dance and rejoice.

“There he is! Lan Zhan, bringer of light!”

A-Yuan bursts out of the fort and rushes to cling to Lan Wangji’s legs.

Laughing, Wei Wuxian follows after. He doesn’t quite tackle Lan Wangji with the same enthusiasm as A-Yuan, but then again, that would knock them all to the floor. But he does join the group hug.

“I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Wei Wuxian says, between gifting Lan Wangji with light kisses up the side of his jaw.

“Had to change the batteries.”

“Ahhh.” Wei Wuxian gives Lan Wangji a few more playful pecks. “That must have been a pain, in the dark.”

Lan Wangji shrugs.

Wei Wuxian laughs. “Always so modest, my Lan Zhan. Too modest, if you ask me. If it were me who managed to change batteries in a pitch black room, I’d be gloating so much.”

Lan Wangji can’t help but smile at the thought. Wei Wuxian is right. He would have gloated. And Lan Wangji would have happily praised him.

“Oh!” Wei Wuxian takes the flashlight from Lan Wangji. “You know what we should do, now that we have a flashlight?” He positions the light underneath his chin, to make spooky shadows grow across his face. “Ghost stories!”

“No!” A-Yuan screeches, and buries his face into Lan Wangji’s pant leg.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says.

Wei Wuxian lowers the flashlight. “Ahh, okay, no ghost stories. Then... how about shadow puppets? A-Yuan, I can show you how to make a bunny rabbit!”

That gets A-Yuan’s attention. He glances up at Wei Wuxian. “How?”

“Let me show you!” Wei Wuxian takes A-Yuan’s hand in his, though he has to walk with his back slightly bent to do so. “Lan Zhan, you can hold the flashlight for us.”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji follows, with a smile on his face and a pleasant fullness in his chest.

[satonthelotuspier]

Wangji Week 2020

Day 1 (Jan 20): Childhood ✦ Bunnies ✦ Gentians

It was a warm end to a late spring day and Wei Wuxian had managed to convince Lan Zhan to step away from the myriad duties that kept him busy and just take a little time to breathe.

They sat outside the Jingshi enjoying the last rays of sunshine.

Well, Lan Zhan sat and Wei Wuxian lay with his head in his lap.

A particularly adventuresome bunny would occasionally struggle up the steps from the grass to check on Lan Zhan, flop over to snuffle him, and hop away again to join his family, or to try and coax the last carrot out of Wei Wuxian, who shooed the rabbit away, crunching on his spoils lazily.

He looked up into the face of his husband, it wore it’s usual calm expressionlessness: something that always piqued Wei Wuxian’s need to tease. He waved the carrot under Lan Zhan’s nose, but the other merely brushed his hand away with a chiding “Wei Ying”

Wei Wuxian tossed the remains of his snack off the veranda into the mass of moving cotton wool buns and folded his arms behind his head.

“Lan Zhan”

“Mn”

“Tell me stories of A-Yuan growing up in Cloud Recesses”

Lan Zhan’s eyes softened the tiniest amount as he reached up a hand to stroke Wei Wuxian’s hair gently.

“Xiongzhang would be able to tell you better, I was absent for many years” he said seriously, and Wei Wuxian propped himself up, caught Lan Zhan by the back of the neck and pulled him down to kiss him.

When he let him go Wei Wuxian said, “I don’t want to hear it from your brother, Lan Zhan, I can’t get stories and kisses from Lan Xichen”

So Lan Zhan gave into Wei Wuxian, as he always did, and told stories of childhood Lan Sizhui.

“He would chew and chew on Shuoyue’s tassel when he was very young, Xiongzhang replaced it many times”

Wei Wuxian chuckled, familiar with the problem and imagined a serious-faced little A-Yuan chomping away on Lan Xichen’s sword tassel as he had so often on Chenqing.

“He was always a very serious little boy. He couldn’t recall due to the fever but I believe he was always aware he had suffered great loss” Lan Wangji touched Wei Wuxian’s lips gently as they’d taken on a downward curve at his words. “But his friendship with Jingyi helped”

Yes, Wei Wuxian definitely understood that, just as his loquacious and overconfident personality complimented the stoic, understated Lan Zhan, the loud and opinionated Jingyi would be the perfect foil for a quiet, thoughtful A-Yuan.

“He was inconsolable for a full night the first time he lost a baby tooth” Lan Zhan continued, winding a strand of Wei Wuxian’s hair around his finger, “He was convinced he would lose all his teeth and have none left when he grew up. Jingyi had lost one sooner and showed Sizhui he was growing a new one the next morning, then he felt better about it” the anecdote caused a soft smile to return to Wei Wuxian’s mouth.

“Did you really bury him in a pile of rabbits?”

“Mn. Sizhui likes the rabbits. He often comes to lie amongst them and think still. He went through a few days of pretending to be a rabbit after that, refusing to eat anything but greens and carrots”

“It’s not like you’d notice the difference with the food at Cloud Recesses” the comment was out before Wei Wuxian could think better of it, and he looked guiltily up at Lan Zhan, who merely smiled that barely-a-smile of indulgence and pinched his cheek in retribution. Wei Wuxian loved that Lan Zhan had grown enough to be able to tease him.

“Was he always a good child and student? You taught him the guqin and said he was talented” well, that hadn’t exactly been what Lan Zhan had said, but it was the equivalent.

“Mn, Sizhui is adequate on the guqin” again, it was virtually a shining accolade from Lan Zhan. “Sizhui is a good student. He was never a bad child, but he did let himself act without thinking sometimes. During an afternoon romp with Jingyi they destroyed the bed of flowers outside the Gentian House. Xiongzhang was very upset, but he didn’t berate them too harshly knowing they didn’t mean to”

The gentians Lan Zhan mentioned were those outside the house the Lan Jade’s mother had been secluded in, and meant a lot to both of them. Wei Wuxian sat up then and manoeuvred himself in Lan Zhan’s lap, throwing his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck and hugging him. He had said it upset Lan Xichen, but it would have been the same for Lan Zhan too. He allowed himself to be hugged, stroking Wei Wuxian’s back, then Wei Wuxian pulled back met the gaze of Lan Zhan.

“He had a good childhood, I’m glad, and thankful to you and Lan Xichen, we could never have given A-Yuan that in the Burial Mounds, even if we’d been allowed to live in peace by the cultivational world. Thank you, Lan Zhan”

Lan Zhan placed a finger against his lips, still unwilling to be told “thank you” by Wei Wuxian.

“He would have turned out a fine young man either way” Lan Zhan assured him, pressing his forehead to Wei Wuxian’s.

Eventually Wei Wuxian snuggled against Lan Zhan’s chest, “Tell me more of the trouble A-Yuan and Jingyi caused”

[ctl-yuejie]

lan zhan is fucking whipped, honestly.

he is so whipped you have no idea!

what I adore most about their relationship is how well the story portrays their pining for each other.(this will be my take on it based on both the series and the novel, SPOILERS!)

pining, in my opinion, can easily become tedious and annoying to watch and there is a huge risk in loosing the audiences interest in the endgame couple.

but in the series, and even more so in the novel, there is logical reasoning behind these two misinterpreting each others actions and social cues. they do their utmost to make the other person happy and to make them save, but neither dare to hope that their romantic feelings get reciprocated. 

wei wuxian falls more into the category of oblivious but this mostly just extends to how he labels his feelings. he is quite aware on how he feels and what he wants but as he believes that there’s no possibility of lan wangji returning the feeling he doesn’t even try to understand his heart and to put it into context with the world.

i adore these two because their relationship is nothing like the negative aspects this trope can entail. they don’t hurt each other out of spite or deliberately have misunderstandings, they never push the other away for egoistic reasons and they never ever act like they are entitled to the other feeling the same. even more so, this lack of entitlement is the biggest reason why they are pining. they don’t wish to push too hard because they value each other too much and while wei wuxian thinks he doesn’t deserve a deep relationship like this in general, lan wangji comes to the conclusion that based on his logical analysis wei wuxian would never be interested in him in a romantic way and that he already has to deal with far more important issues. so why complicate this relationship which at least allows him to help wei wuxian as much as he can. 

nevertheless, all their actions are done out of deep love, respect and admiration for each other.

the pining never gets tiring because their relationship is already there for us to see and feel, just the two people involved are stubborn enough to ignore it for what they think are the right reasons.

and to some extant they are right. the series never really deals with in universe homophobia, which clearly exists in the novel, but it is obvious that even in the beginning a possible relationship could hurt them. they are both young and only lan wangji is aware of his feelings. he doesn’t dare to overstep this line because there might be serious consequences to an entanglement. later on it is more about how their relationship in general might effect their social standing. they both have their obligations and roles to fulfill and when wei wuxian sees no other choice but to walk his own way he doesn’t want to endanger lan wangji or even his reputation and lan wangji doesn’t try to help him against his will because he has first-hand knowledge about how corrosive such a relationship can be. 

both their family history and upbringing have a huge impact on how their act on their feelings. wei wuxian never things that he is entitled to anything, in the novel he doesn’t even pry about information of people he likes. lan wangji was still too small to understand his mothers passing, but the effect the controlling relationship of his parents had on his uncle and older brother are visible for him to see. wei wuxian doesn’t take and lan wangji doesn’t want to own. they are caught in this limbo until it is too late and their values, that were so much aligned and a driving force for their relationship, are starting to drift apart.

and with it comes regret and maybe even anger at his own possible shortcomings. but even so, lan wangji is still full of love for wei wuxian. even in his absence he does the most to find him and later on honour who he was. it is obvious that rescuing ah-yuan is done because of his own moral code, but the dedication he puts into ah-yuan’s upbringing and education is also filled with the love he feels for wei wuxian. i mean, it is no surprise that ah-yuan gets buried in a pile of rabbits one time, which would definitely be something not lan wangji but wei wuxian would do.

and when they find each other again, they once more revel at how much they love and care for each other, this time promising themselves not to repeat old mistakes. not only is wei wuxian much more aware of his feelings now, they both dare to wish for more and not let go of this second chance they got granted.

(possible by the deity of star-crossed lovers who couldn’t stand to watch their bullshit anymore)

they are both absolutely whipped for each other and I love it

[taotrooper]

Held with two hands

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi Characters: Wen Ning, Lan Sizhui, a bunny, Lan Wangji, and guest appearances by the two loudest people in Gusu Genre: Fluff, family, cuteness Summary: In which one of the Cloud Recesses bunnies makes an escape, and Wen Ning ends up getting a pet with Sizhui's help. Written for MDZS Zine - With Love, go check out the rest of the fanworks!

AO3 link ++ zine link

Over his head, up and above in the clear firmament, the white clouds danced across the blue sky, slow but determined, their shapes changing with the wind. He craned his neck up and looked at them in the silence of the morning. One of the largest ones looked like a duck swimming in the water if he squinted.

Looking for shapes relaxed him and made him forget about the weight of his body, about the old suppressed resentment that slept within him, about how dull this life was sometimes without pain or fear or hunger. But clouds, clouds were good. They made him remember of the soft texture of cotton gauzes.

"Hey! Uncle Ning!" A voice rang from the distance. The person he was expecting had arrived. The highlight of a day that otherwise would have been ordinary. A smile bloomed inside of Wen Ning's heart.

"Good morning, A-Yuan," he looked back to the Earth and nodded. The excited grin he couldn't put on his lips was nonetheless plastered in Lan Sizhui's.

"Good morning," the boy hugged him briefly and rubbed Wen Ning's upper back. "Sorry I'm late! I had to do extra chores. Jingyi got punished today so, he can't come."

"Oh no!" Wen Ning's head dropped.

He didn't mind that his little cousin had taken his time. It's not like he had much planned that day. He had hoped the other loud yet kind boy would come and visit as well. He was doomed to be rather fond of loud kind people. After Sizhui, he was the friendliest of the young boys towards him.

"It's okay, it's just an extra reading and not lines this time. He says he's definitely coming with us next time."

"I-I'm looking forward to it."

Sizhui giggled with his hand covering his mouth. The sound was music to Wen Ning's ears.

"Right, let me show you this cool trick we were taught in class today. Hold on a second."

The teenager took out a Qiankun pouch from his long white sleeve. As he opened it to get a stack of talisman paper, Wen Ning noticed that Sizhui's sleeve started to move on its own.

Sizhui froze and stared at his robes with confusion in his eyes. He bent his arm and shook the sleeve until something white and fluffy landed on the grass.

One long ear rose forward and a nose twitched in the air.

How did a bunny get inside of A-Yuan's clothes?

"Aw!" the boy lamented. "It must have sneaked inside while I was feeding the rabbits!"

"Feeding the rabbits?" Wen Ning repeated. This was the first time he had heard the Lan Sect raised animals of any kind in the Cloud Recesses. Then again, he had never stepped inside and only knew the things he caught from the boys or Wei Wuxian's stories. And hadn't A-Yuan mentioned that Lan Wangji had buried him with rabbits when he was younger? Suddenly that odd story made perfect sense.

Meanwhile, the creature was running in circles and jumping in the air. Wen Ning wondered if that was its way of playing. Sizhui didn't seem alarmed by the hops, so that couldn't be a bad thing. Despite that, the man's shoulders stiffened further.

"W-What should we do? Do we catch...?"

"It's okay, Uncle, I don't think it'll leave too far if it hasn't already. Besides, it's happy!"

"Is it?" Wen Ning tilted his head.

"When they jump like that, they're saying they're content and glad to be there. It's like a little dance."

"Oh..."

The bunny skipped a few more times before stopping to explore the area. And that meant it looked around, approached the stranger carefully, and then stood up on its hind legs to lean on Wen Ning's calf with its front legs. He looked down and glanced, and their eyes met. The bunny's right ear was naturally crooked, as if folded. The nose was still twitching. The cuteness was so strong that an impulse invaded the dead man's mind.

After a moment of hesitation, Wen Ning crouched and reached so the rabbit was then cupped within his two hands. It made no attempt to escape; instead, it just moved its head around. His heart felt a tender tug that had nothing to do with any wounds in his chest. With utmost caution, he shifted the weight in only one hand, and with the other he caressed the bunny's back with his fingertips.

It was not spooked, as he had feared. The fur was so soft and fuzzy. The rabbit's teeth started to make clicking sounds that made him recall a cat's purr after petting for a while.

"Whoa!" Lan Sizhui said with a gasp.

"I-Is it comfortable...?"

"Yes! It's actually really happy!" the boy beamed.

While he was physically unable to shed tears, Wen Ning strongly felt like crying.

He kept running his fingers through the bunny's back. Once he was more confident, he moved on to its head and later scratched behind its ears. The animal was delighted and tilted its bended ear closer to the ashen hand. High-pitched muffled noises came out of the man's throat, a stark contrast with the deafening deep roars of a fierce corpse.

"Are you by chance good with animals, Uncle?"

"Um... We had a couple of kittens when I was little, but other than that... I don't know. Ever since I became like this, I try not to get close and scare any animals." After all, they usually can tell he's unnatural and dangerous. "This is the first one I’ve touched this much."

"Aww, Uncle Ning..."

"Ah... Sorry..." A realization, a sadness that was visible in his frozen expression regardless. "Here, you have to take it back."

As he grabbed the rabbit under its front legs to give to Sizhui, it started to struggle. It couldn't escape the inhuman iron-like grasp, but it still let them know it disagreed with this decision. When Wen Ning turned it again to face him, it stopped the thrashing.

"..."

"Huh, it doesn't want to go back yet." Sizhui tapped his chin, lost in thought. "Let's do something, okay? I'll talk to Hanguang-jun."

"What for?"

"Well, the rabbits are his. But we have so many, so maybe he can let you have it. I mean, if you want it as a pet?"

Wen Ning couldn't blink, but his voice was but a whisper loaded with surprise. "A pet? Can I?" The idea of taking care of a small, fragile living being like that seemed wild to him.

"You don't lose control anymore so as long as you go on night-hunts together and such, I don't see why not?" Sizhui glanced at the makeshift shack that Wen Ning had made by the foot of the mountain to protect himself from the elements, as if evaluating whether a bunny could remain indoors or not without dying.

Wen Ning was holding the rabbit under its butt, in a way where the pads of its paws were visible. In that position, they could tell she was a girl. Also, she was too adorable. He didn't want to get his hopes up, and to be honest the idea was giving him some anxiety. Yet he really longed to have her company.

"I know a lot about bunny care, don't worry about the details. Let me fly back and ask!" Sizhui smiled. "Even if you're not allowed, at least I can buy you an afternoon to play with her."

"I-Isn't that too much trouble for you?" Wen Ning fretted.

"Of course not. I'll be back before curfew! Have fun!"

"W-Wait! A-Yuan?"

Sizhui didn't reply and instead unsheathed his sword.

Such a good boy, he thought as he saw his cousin get closer to the clouds above.

************

Sizhui went through the words he wanted to say one last time in his head, when he reached the Jingshi's door. Carefully, he placed his ear on the wooden surface and listened. No noises, no voices, no heavy breathing or alarming sounds. These days, it was essential to take a few seconds to make sure you didn't interrupt the happy couple during their time together. For your mental health, mostly.

Confident, the boy knocked and waited a few seconds. It was possible they hadn't returned yet and the house was empty, but a familiar voice rang from inside.

"Come in."

Sizhui opened the door carefully and greeted with a bright smile. "Good afternoon, Hanguang-jun. Welcome back!"

Lan Wangji was sitting at his desk. He nodded and put down the book he was reading. He seemed as solemn as usual but Sizhui knew better. There was an almost invisible yet tender spark in his eyes inside the stern complexion.

"Am I interrupting? I can come back later," the boy asked as he sat in front of the desk. He could smell the comforting scent of sandalwood from the incense burner, and he could see his father's guqin resting on a bamboo stand in a corner.

"No need, you are more important." Sizhui felt warm and loved at the words. "Are you just visiting or is there anything you wished to talk about?"

"Ah, yes. Um... It's about one of the rabbits. When I was feeding them this morning, one of the girls jumped inside my sleeve and well..." Sizhui sighed. "I went outside the Cloud Recesses and she managed to stow away." He made a pause to see if there was any reaction in Lan Wangji's face. His face was unchanging, which was even more intimidating. "She got away from me but don't worry, someone caught her."

"I see. Be more careful next time." Lan Wangji's voice was quite neutral at least, not giving it much importance.

"I will, but that's not the problem. I—"

They were interrupted by the faraway noise of an object breaking, two thuds, a clang, a donkey's outraged bray, and another familiar voice yelling something about either something black, a hound or a skull. That could be either of these things, considering this was Senior Wei in question. Neither of the two Lans decided to dwell on it.

"Anyway," Sizhui shook his head. "I wasn't the one who retrieved her. A... another person was nearby and he caught her. The thing is, the bunny really likes him. We already have so many, so I was wondering if we could allow him to keep her as his pet? Please? I feel bad breaking them up."

He bit his lower lip while his father figure was lost in thoughts. What if this was a mistake and he had given his uncle a false hope?

"As long as this person has no intentions of eating her," Lan Wangji finally said, "I have no objections."

"Hahaha, no!" Sizhui chuckled. "He doesn't eat." Realizing the mistake of ending the phrase there, he quickly added more to it. "Meat, I mean. He doesn't eat meat. No rabbit meat in his diet. Ahahaha..."

The pause was too long and awkward! Nonetheless, Hanguang-jun's face remained the same.

"Mmn. Make sure to tell him about proper care," he said. Sizhui let out the breath he was holding. "If he's a cultivator or you think he could partake in dangerous business, you may add a general version of our protocol on how to handle and keep small living beings safe during night hunts. In case that might be useful."

The boy wondered if that last part meant his father figure suspected this stranger's real identity. But since Sizhui didn't know Lan Wangji's actual opinion on Wen Ning or if he'd let one of his bunnies in the hands of a fierce corpse, he preferred to leave it at that.

"Thank you so much," Sizhui bowed, his ponytail bouncing up and down, and then stood up. "I'll leave you to your reading, okay?"

"Stop," Lan Wangji said after he had turned on his heels. "I need to discuss something with you as well, so please take a seat."

That didn't bode well, but Sizhui complied and hoped it didn't involve copying lines while doing a handstand again.

"Uncle has given me a series of complaints about you. He wants me to put sense into your head."

"Oh..." Indeed, this could end up in punishment. "About the night hunts?"

"About the night hunts. He's upset about you inviting Wen Qionglin, about you staying past the curfew, about you dragging the other disciples your age and about you being a bad influence to your juniors. This is a level of indiscipline improper of you."

Sizhui opened his mouth, but he immediately closed it before defending himself. He had no idea how to do that, how to explain how he felt about spending time with his Uncle Ning, how warm and fuzzy it was that Jingyi and the others were nice to him as if he wasn't the Ghost General. Yet he understood their teacher's worries, even if he thought they were unfair.

"I will appreciate it if in the future you act with prudence..."

"Hanguang-jun..."

"...and come back to the Cloud Recesses long before nine, if possible."

Sizhui blinked and waited for the rest, but Lan Wangji was already picking up his book from the desk.

"You're only concerned about the curfew?" he dared asking.

"I politely disagree with Uncle. Wei Ying and I don't think Wen Qionglin is a danger to any of you. "

Lan Sizhui let out a sigh. He straightened his back and returned to a serious expression that didn't match his relief.

"Understood. I'll do my best to follow the rules, and make the others follow them too."

"Mmn."

As he was about to leave the room, he heard Lan Wangji's voice behind him.

"I respect that he's your family, just like we are."

Sizhui's eyes started to prickle with hot tears, but the door opened and he saw a surprised smirk in front of him.

"Oh, it's Sizhui! Hey!" Wei Wuxian's hand pet the boy's head and ruffled his hairstyle. "Talk to you later, there's an emergency and I have to redraw suppressing talismans on a skull. Okay?"

"Y-yeah, please do so, Senior Wei. And welcome home!"

With quick steps, the fastest he could without running -as it was against the rules after all- the young man left the Jingshi with no questions for his other father figure about whatever mess he was solving or creating.

************

"Uncle Ning? Are you home?"

The voice and knock came from beyond the makeshift door. Without making sudden moves, the owner of the miserable but sturdy hut answered. "Yes."

The vision that awaited Lan Sizhui was quite amazing. Wen Ning lay on his back, on the body-long mat he used as a seating space or for a guest's bed. Over the length of his torso, the bunny flopped on her belly. Front paws under her head, back legs stretched out, ears laid back at an angle. She didn't mind the vein-marked hand that was scratching her in a lazy manner. No matter how you looked at it, the rabbit had come to trust this strange gray giant to the point of being able to completely relax on him.

Wen Ning couldn't see his relative's face until he sat next to him. Sizhui had a cute expression of delight that to him matched not only the animal but the state of his own heart.

After he regained some composure and stopped suppressing silly sounds —a struggle his uncle had understood too well for the entire afternoon— Sizhui coughed into his own fist and attempted to sound solemn.

"I have news. I spoke to Hanguang-jun, and he says he doesn't mind."

Wen Ning's eyes opened wide. He sat up in a jolt, not before placing a firm hand over the rabbit's body. She escaped his grasp in protest and jumped off, away from his arms. The man was too busy staring at the boy's honest grin in disbelief.

"I-Is it true? Really?"

"Really, really! She's yours!"

He had been bracing himself for a negative answer for the last hour. He had resigned himself to just enjoying a short time with the rabbit before returning her. As sad as it was, he had been used to things never going the way he hoped -even when he was alive his luck had always been beyond terrible. Despite this unusual positive response, he couldn't believe his ears.

Was it childish to be this happy for being allowed to keep a pet? It was as if the adult had been Sizhui instead of him, and that gave him a bit of shame. And yet... and yet... he felt so blessed he knew he would weep if his eyes could. His heart was swelling with joy.

"Thank you." His whisper left his lips in a broken voice. "Give Young Master Lan my thanks."

"Hahaha, he says there's no need."

"Did you hear, A-Ju?" He turned to the rabbit. "You're staying with me."

The bunny flopped again on the mat, this time on her left side and with her front legs folded near her chest.

"She keeps doing that," Wen Ning explained. "It's cute."

"It's a good thing," Sizhui assured him. "So her name is Ju?"

Wen Ning nodded. He would have blushed if he could. Despite his pessimism, he had still decided on a full name for her. He had thought for a long time.

"Written which what character?"

"Like chrysanthemum," Wen Ning drew 菊 in the air with a finger.

"Ah, that's pretty! I thought it was from bent." He drew 局 and pointed at the bunny's quirky ear.

"Ah, that too. She, uh... Her full name is Ju Juju."

"And the other Ju?" Sizhui leaned closer with sparks in his eyes.

Wen Ning picked up A-Ju and grasped her with his two hands as an answer. "Ju." His cousin drew the right character in the air, 匊, before cracking up.

"Pfffft, Uncle!" Sizhui snickered.

"I know, it's kind of silly..."

"I like that wordplay, though." The boy tickled the belly of the now named Ju Juju. "I do think it's clever!"

A-Yuan was one of the few people Wen Ning knew who genuinely found his jokes and puns funny. He had stopped saying them during his childhood when he only received exasperated groans, and it was wonderful when he accidentally discovered that they had a similar sense of humor.

"Ju as the flower for short," Wen Ning added, ruffling Sizhui's hair very softly.

"Yep, it's the most name-like. And her tail is fluffy like that flower so it suits her."

"Yes." Wen Ning forced a smile on his lips. Sizhui looked around and saw the small bowls of fruit and water on the ground, and a couple of sticks and stones that his uncle had offered as prospects for temporary toys.

"Okay, should I tell you how to take care of her?"

"Please do."

He was going to love to take care of her.

************

Epilogue

"Hey! Wen Ning!" Wei Wuxian's voice rang out, this time not enticing with orders but just appealing with the cordiality of an old friend. It was not a summon but a call. Behind him, Lan Wangji was holding Li’l Apple's reins and two boys trotted next to their seniors.

"...Young Master Wei." A tall, meek figure came out of the bamboo forest.

Wei Ying grinned as the Lan clan members exchanged greetings. Was it his imagination, or did Wen Ning's chest look a bit more buff? Couldn't be, and yet he looked slightly bulkier.

"Coming with us to a night hunt?" Wei Wuxian said.

"Y-Yes, I'd love to... Just give me two minutes." Wen Ning's well-worn boots were twitching, as if he wanted to run away.

"What's wrong?" Lan Wangji asked.

"Uh? N-Nothing, I need to... drop something at the hut..."

That's when Wen Ning's pectorals started to rustle and jingle. Before anyone could say anything, a white head emerged from his shirt. It was a rabbit.

Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi shared the same guilty look on their faces which meant that, unlike Wei Wuxian, they understood what was going on.

"Why is there's a bunny here?" Had it been anyone else, Wei Wuxian would have also asked Wen Ning a question about the possibility of catching it to roast it, but he knew the his friend wouldn’t appreciate that. Besides, for some reason there were two ribbons, one white and one red, forming a little bow around its neck so it was probably a pet. Tied to the ribbons, there was a little round silver bell which explained the noise.

A white blur slowly passed by everyone until he stood in front of Wen Ning, who started to shake. Lan Zhan just glanced at the animal. After some seconds of indecision, Wen Ning took it out of his shirt and raised it towards his old master's husband with reluctance. The boys seemed as nervous as the fierce corpse.

Lan Wangji didn't grab the bunny, though. He moved his hand to place it over the fuzzy ears. Just like that, he started to pet it. It closed its eyes and leaned closer to the elegant fingers of jade. Neither his or Wen Ning's face had made any change in their expression, just them staring at the fluffy white thing, one holding it and the other one caressing it.

Wei Wuxian couldn't take it. They were too much. His stomach was hurting from the strain of suppressing the laughter.

"Oh, I can't with this!" he guffawed. Lan Wangji stopped and turned around. Wen Ning quickly let the bunny climb to his shoulder, where it licked its owner's cheek. "You two..." Wei Ying giggled, unable to restrain himself. "Adult men shouldn't be this cute!"

"Right?!" Jingyi nodded furiously.

"Senior Wei can be cute as well sometimes," Sizhui helped.

"Well, I guess that's—" Wei Wuxian pouted, unable to feel fully complimented or insulted. He crossed his arms. "Wait, why only sometimes?"

"Let me take A-Ju back inside," Wen Ning said. "She has a big corral."

"Mnn," Lan Wangji said, ignoring the return of his beloved's loud laugh. "As in the flower?"

"Yes, Young Master Lan."

"Good name."

Wen Ning couldn't beam at Lan Zhan's comment but he sure looked the happiest they had seen in a while. After a string of thankful sounds, the undead man ran to his hut with the bunny on his shoulder. The bell rang with every step.

Lan Wangji didn't smile either but Wei Wuxian glanced at the tenderness in his eyes. The latter wasn't sure if it was the rabbit or warming up to Wen Ning over a common interest that wasn't protecting Wei Wuxian or the juniors' asses for once. Still, he was mesmerized by the soft expression on that beautiful face until Jingyi's voice broke the spell.

"But Senior Wei has a point," he said. "I don't think anyone would believe us if we told them that we witnessed Hanguang-jun and the Ghost General, two of the strongest and scariest men of the cultivation world, basically coo over a bunbun together."

"Hahaha, yes!" Sizhui agreed.

"That's part of their secret charm!" Wei Wuxian grinned and clasped around his husband's arm. Wen Ning returned with a little hop into his steps. Wei Ying in turn was also content to see this man, whom he had cursed with such a miserable afterlife, so full of love.

In fact he decided it was better than any teasing or cooking joke he could make. Adult men like those two could and should be this cute, especially around him and the kids.

[leatherbookmark]

rambly notes, part 1/?:

lsz calls wen ning wen-dono... :’) it’s v respectful! he’s also using humble language (as in, a type of polite language in which the speaker places themself below the person they’re talking to) when he offers to accompany him. poor wn must be having a bit of a whiplash every time lsz pulls that :’’) how long has it been since he was considered not only a person, but someone worth respect? has he... ever been respected at all? sigh :(

SOBS yeah “this inonceivable offer made him very happy” wen niiiiiing

interesting! in the scene where wwx overheards lsz mentioning “wei-qianbei burying a child in the soil like a radish” and stumbles, exr has lan wangji’s eyebrows “curve” but then “immediately go back to normal”. i haven’t found the meaning of it yet, but visually, it reminds me of the eyebrow twitch anime characters sometimes do, and you know they’re irritated. the original text uses 弯, and one of its meanings listed in wiktionary is “bent; curved; crooked; arched”. there’s “arching one’s eyebrows”, or simply raising them, to show either surprise or disapproval. so, to me, this scene reads a bit like lwj internally clicks his tongue at wwx’s clumsiness.

but then, the japanese text has it that lan wangji has 目を細めていたが、その微かなな笑みはすぐにまた元に戻った, or, he narrowed his eyes, but soon after a faint smile returned to his face. so, more or less the same thing, but the japanese translator did something that i want to kiss them for, aka added the necessary information to make the sentence fuller. BUT ALSO 目を細める (the narrowing, or squinting, of one’s eyes) has this meaning of like... eyes going squinty when you smile at something, often with fondness or joy. so while i don’t think that was the intended meaning, it could kinda paint the picture of wwx stumbling, lwj going 😍 at his clumsy ass then immediately collecting himself and returning to default wei ying flavoured :^). CUTE.

oh my god. ohhhh my god. so in exr, sizhui says “Hanguang-jun also once buried me in a pile of rabbits“. the word used is “buried”, a nod to wwx burying a-yuan in the soil, i think. well. in japanese he was tossed. literally. ウサギの群れの中に放り込まれた, tossed into a group/colony/herd/whatever else is used of rabbits. i have no idea what to make of this. the original sentence in chinese does use 放, although wiktionary doesn’t have “to throw” in its meaning list -- rather, it’s just “put”. if it’s a mistake i’m forgiving it, because the imagery is fucking brilliant. YEET

^ this is also why the comparison between wwx burying a-yuan radish style and the esteemed hanguang-jung t o s s i n g a-yuan into a group of rabbits is so much more enjoyable now. with “putting” or “burying” in rabbits, the image is still cute, sort of awkward. tossing... yeah, they’re both insane. godspeed comrades, rip rabbits

aaaand then i’m a bit confused, because the japanese edition has this sentence (before the first comma is the part about the training ground being twice as large): 修練場は倍も大きく拡張され、新しく建てられた建物が連なる反り返ったの軒先は、敢えて不揃いになるよう起伏が設けられている。exr went with “each new building seemed to be taller than the last, adorned with curving roofs”. throwing the original fragment of the text (一座连一座的新筑飞檐勾角高低错落) in google translate gets me “one after another, the eaves and corners of the new buildings are scattered at different heights”, and the japanese version thrown in gtrans gets you “the curved eaves, which are a series of newly built buildings, are undulating so that they are intentionally uneven”. it’s kind of bullshit but it kind of gives me the idea of like... i’m going to commit a crime for a sec, bear with me, the upwards-curving eaves stretching from the newly built buildings have been arranged in an undulating manner, as if inorderly on purpose. which is a fucking hell to understand but like... does it mean that... every other building has been renovated to have upwards-curving eaves? because 起伏 is like, undulation, going up and down? or is it about the line of the roofs, as in, because of the curving eaves they go all wiggly? why 敢えて不揃いになるよう/inorderly on purpose? this is literally unimportant to everyone who’s not me but also man i wish other fan translations (if they’ve reached this point) were available so that i could compare and Figure It Out

ok i’ll stop for now. dear friends, i have read one and three fourths of a page. i am so sorry

[aspiratixxn]

Ink spills on your skin (3/?)

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: None at the moment

Summary:

If the perfect blank canvas walked in, wouldn’t you want to paint it too? Or in which one Wei Wuxian colors the entire world of one Lan Wangji.

Start from the beginning [AO3]

---------------

Wei Wuxian is a dead man (again) but this time because A-Yuan wandered off into the marketplace as he was looking over fresh grown fruits and vegetables.

It’s a Saturday morning and Saturday mornings are farmer’s market mornings. The street three blocks down closes over a mile stretch and is filled with stalls from morning to afternoon. These mornings are the only ones when Wei Wuxian gets up at an ungodly hour, determined to get the best fruits and vegetables and whatever else anyone can offer. Usually they end up with a lot of really fucking good yogurt and bread and olive oil. One of their favorite things to do is sample everything and Wei Wuxian always, always caves to whatever A-Yuan wants.

Ah, being a parent is hard. But of course he wouldn’t give it up for anything in the universe, not even if the heavens themselves demanded. He’d rather have his middle finger up and walk backwards into hell carrying A-Yuan.

Hence why he might be in a full on panic looking for his son. He had flung some peaches unceremoniously at the vendor as soon as he realized, a screech emerging from his throat that left the vendor in complete shock.

“A-YUAN!” Wei Wuxian uses his honed gifts to dodge patrons and dogs underfoot with unerring accuracy as his eyes scan the clothes of every child. A-Yuan insisted on wearing his bright red hoodie today and you would think that might make it easier to find him but it feels like everyone is wearing red (even though they clearly aren’t). “A-YUAN?!”

His throat closes, heart pounds, hands clench. Okay, okay, he couldn’t have gotten far right? He’s just a kid and he’s a good kid, not like Wei Wuxian who used to run off with Jiang Cheng in hand. Of course he had never left the sight of his shijie so. There’s that. Wei Wuxian knows he’s wheezing, looking manic as he desperately tears through the crowd. Only to hear crying. He knows that crying, he knows it all too well. That’s his A-Yuan and he doesn’t even bother trying to be polite as he shoves people out of the way and comes to the center of the gathering crowd, where A-Yuan clutches to someone’s leg full on sobbing.

“A-Yuan!!” Wei Wuxian crouches down and his hands are flying, pulling A-Yuan’s little chubby face towards him. He must look scary, he knows, because A-Yuan just cries louder, trying to bury his snotty, tear streaked face into the pants of the stranger. “A-Yuan, you can’t just leave me like that! You know our rules!” But the relief that washes through him is so strong, all he can do is sit down on the pavement with his hands on A-Yuan’s face. Wei Wuxian himself is very close to tears. “Ah,” he rasps, shifting his hands to around A-Yuan’s shoulders and pulling him back gently from the stranger’s pants. “I’m so sorry, he’s usually not like this and I don’t know why he’s clinging to you because he never clings to people he doesn’t know and-” He looks up and all at once whatever he was going to say, whatever breath he was going to breathe is stuck in his throat.

It’s Lan Wangji. Pretty, pretty Lan Wangji who looks beautiful even when stricken with discomfort.

Aw, fuck . “A-Yuan, come back here, don’t bother that gege.” A-Yuan relents marginally, scooting a little closer to Wei Wuxian. The only caveat is that he pulls Lan Wangji’s leg with him, looking for the world like he didn’t intend on letting go anytime soon. “Ah, I’m so sorry he- I-” This is far too many emotions for a Saturday morning and Wei Wuxian ends up sighing, right there on the floor and leaning over to rub at A-Yuan’s face with his sleeve. “A-Yuan, come on. Let me pick you up, c’mon bud.”

Lan Wangji, to his credit, has stopped looking so startled and has attained a look of only slight annoyance, mixed with something Wei Wuxian might even call fondness. Maybe. A-Yuan finally allows Wei Wuxian to pick him up and bounce him, cooing quietly and kissing his cheeks. The crowd has dispersed now that the story has an ending, most mothers murmuring among themselves. Though he swears he hears something about how a young single dad like himself is so whatever to be doing this, Wei Wuxian has never been anything but grateful for the introduction of A-Yuan into his life.

Wei Wuxian is not embarrassed. He’s not. He was scared out of his goddamn wits that he had lost his son so it makes sense as to why his heart is pounding and his face is red and he’s having a hard time speaking at all. It’s definitely just panic settling down, nothing else. “So uh, thanks. For um. Finding. Him!” He lightly head bumps A-Yuan who has taken to sucking on his thumb again. “Hey, hey, no no. Your hand is dirty, you touched the ground.” He gently extracts the thumb from A-Yuan’s mouth and ohhhhh nooooo. “A-Yuan, no, don’t cry, shhhh.” But it’s too late, A-Yuan is already crying again, wailing pretty much.

Now he’s stuck because he can’t just let A-Yuan suck on his floor hand but he also doesn’t have any of his usual wet wipes, having finished them and needing to get some more from the store. Wei Wuxian hums quietly instead, holding A-Yuan close to his head so his cheek is smushed against A-Yuan’s forehead. He needs to go sit down, somewhere that’s not in the middle of a crowd.

“Thank you, again, seriously.” He turns to Wangji who has remained standing there, frozen solid. “I uh, I’ll treat you to something. Lunch, if you want. Anytime. I uh, I’m just. Just gonna. Go sit. There.” And then he weaves through the crowd, finding a spot on the curb behind a booth. A-Yuan is still sniffling and crying but he’s calmed down a little at least. “A-Yuan, A-Yuan, are you okay? Does it hurt?” He shakes his head and Wei Wuxian breathes a little easier. He’ll get Wen Qing to look him over later.

He doesn’t even notice a pack of wipes until the plastic crunches against his shoulder. He glances up and it’s Lan Wangji, holding them out. He doesn’t look judgemental, just concerned by the slight furrow of his brow. Wei Wuxian accepts the wipes gratefully, pulling out one and wiping A-Yuan’s face gently, kissing his cheeks and his forehead and his nose until he’s giggling quietly. Lastly, he wipes his hands and when A-Yuan makes to suck on his thumb again, he doesn’t stop him.

Wei Wuxian kind of feels like jelly now, arms and legs melting as he sighs. “Thanks. I needed those.” He passes the pack back but Lan Wangji shakes his head, pushing them back.

“Keep them.” Wei Wuxian looks up with wonder and takes the wipes, sticking them into his mini backpack that holds all of A-Yuan’s things. It’s just a little black and red bag, stitched with little animals, most notably rabbits, bounding across. Wangji again looks almost fond, if Wei Wuxian didn’t know any better. He also notes that Wangji is staring at A-Yuan like he’s never seen a child before.

“Ah, um, this is my son.” A-Yuan sits, curled up on his chest with big eyes. Wei Wuxian kisses his forehead again and feels so much pride and love. “A-Yuan, say hi to gege here.” A-Yuan does as requested, waving a hello with his free hand. Wei Wuxian laughs, pinching his chubby little cheeks.

The sun shines through the trees as a breeze ruffles through the leaves. It blows some of Wei Wuxian’s hair out of its bun and into his face and A-Yuan reaches up to grab the fly aways, giggling. Okay. Now he can breathe and everything is good again. So he looks up and his storm grey eyes meet ones of melted gold and he smiles, brighter than the sun. “Let me thank you with lunch or something.” Wangji seems to begin to decline, a slight shake of his head as he begins to gather his own groceries (which Wei Wuxian hadn’t even noticed before). “Please, I insist.”

Wangji hesitates and that’s how he knows he’s got him. “I know the perfect place, it serves the best sandwiches!” He sets A-Yuan on the ground and grabs his bags with one hand, the other holding firmly onto his son’s.  “C’mon!”

Lan Wangji couldn’t tell you what compelled him to follow Wei Wuxian as he strolled down the block to a little coffee shop-esque place. He did have to admit that even walking through the door, the place smelled divine. Freshly baked bread and coffee and just a hint of floral something floated through the air. It was quiet too, with a mix between small families and young friends out together enjoying the sunshine.

Wei Wuxian had already plopped his son down at a table, crouching and whispering very firmly for A-Yuan to stay put . He gestures vaguely for Wangji to put his stuff down and then approaches the front counter with a cheery wave. The staff seem to know him and the cashier raises a hand for Wei Wuxian to high five. It makes Wangji feel like an outsider, like he’s intruding in a space he shouldn’t. But he does as requested, setting his things aside and approaching the counter himself.

“... And you wouldn’t believe it all! But all’s well that ends well.” The cashier laughs, a boisterous sound, while ringing up what Wangji assumes is a regular order. He looks up to stare at the small menu, covering only two blackboards with beautiful, neat script. He settles on a caprese sandwich and murmurs it quietly to the cashier who nods. “Would you like chips or a salad as a side?”

“Salad.”

“Is raspberry vinaigrette okay with you?” A nod. Wei Wuxian hands over his card. “Alrighty, we’ll have that out to your table in a jiffy!” Wei Wuxian winks as he’s taking the number car and returns to the table, Wangji only barely trailing behind.

This man is a whirlwind, always moving. It’s exhausting. Wangji really just wants to go home, put his groceries away and sit down with his guqin. But he doesn’t, instead taking a seat across from Wei Wuxian who pulls out some paper and crayons for A-Yuan who had started to look fidgety.

“So, I heard you guys just moved into town. How do you like it? Are you here for school or for work? Just to live here?” Wangji sighs.

“School.”

“Oh! Where do you study? No wait, let me guess… You study at Yunmeng university! Or maybe Qinghe?”

“Yunmeng.”

“Oho! So an artist then. Or a musician. Sculptor? Photographer?”

“Musician.” How does one man talk this much?

“Hey that’s cool!” Wei Wuxian grins and leans across the table a little closer. “What do you play? I used to play a little of the flute myself but I haven’t in a while. I used to go to Yunmeng too, I studied art and design.” A flicker of disappointment. “But uh, I never finished so I guess that was a waste of time. Yu- furen always liked to tell me that.”

“Not a waste.” Wangji knows that much at least, eyes tracing all the art on his skin and mind thinking back to the roughly drawn design for his brother’s tattoo. He would never consider Wei Wuxian’s talent and skill a waste. It was beautiful.

“Oh! Um, thanks. I uh, try really hard.” He chuckles, nervous, and Wangji feels a pang in his chest. He prefers when Wei Wuxian sounds light and airy. Being nervous and shy doesn’t suit him. “A-Anyways, um, maybe you could play sometime? There’s this little space that me and my friends like to visit and it’s quiet and we play there. Just kinda jam I guess. You could join us! And my shijie likes to make food and we have a little get together party thing and it’s fun! Mingjue, my friend’s brother, is usually there so I assume that your brother might come to the next one too?” Wangji sours, eyes clouding over as he curls his lip slightly. He still thinks it’s wholly ridiculous for his brother to have gotten into a relationship with the neighbors just like that. And then to dive in so deep as to get matching tattoos within the week?? Foolish. Xichen is not a fool though, he is incredibly intelligent, often noticing things before Wangji himself does. The troublesome thoughts must show on his face because Wei Wuxian retracts his offer as quickly as he gave it. “You don’t have to of course! Just, if you want, I thought I’d offer but uh, no pressure. You really don’t have to.” He looks like he’s been scolded and Wangji feels guilt.

“I’ll come.” Wei Wuxian’s eyes widen and his mouth drops open and it makes Wangji’s lips quirk up in the tiniest of smiles. The cashier brings over three plates of food, two sandwiches and some chicken nuggets for A-Yuan. He slaps Wei Wuxian on the shoulder and laughs as he retreats and Wangji finds that he does really like the way that Wei Wuxian is surrounded by laughter and joy. He might find it obnoxious if it was anyone else but it’s soft and gentle from Wei Wuxian.

A-Yuan takes a nugget and dips it before biting into it. He doesn’t talk with his mouth full at least but he does start babbling a bit after he swallows, saying, “Gege! Want one?” He offers it first to Wei Wuxian who takes a bite and bops his nose before turning to offer it to Wangji. He has those big earnest eyes and Wangji finds it more difficult than anticipated to shake his head no and take a pointed bite of his own sandwich (which really is delicious wow). A-Yuan pouts and starts to protest but Wangji shakes his head again.

“Do not speak when eating.” A-Yuan pulls back, not hurt but curious rather. He looks to Wei Wuxian who shrugs and nods. A-Yuan mirrors that nod to Wangji and sits quietly, dipping his nuggets and his carrots.

“Ah, Wangji-xiong you’re so stiff.” Lan Wangji does not reply, instead taking another pointed bite. Wei Wuxian pouts and Wangji nearly chokes on his bite, he’s cute? He’s really cute? Wei Wuxian is quick to offer some water. “Don’t die on me!”

Wangji shoots him an irritated glance, taking the water and sipping at it. He clears his throat. “Thank you.”

“Of course!” Warm smiles. Wangji feels kind of like he’s been basking in the sun for hours. It’s a lot, but perhaps not in a bad way.

Lunch ends a bit sooner than either of them might like and they stand in front of the store. The sun has risen high, the heat nearing unbearable. The market is in full swing, bustling far more than in the morning with bodies bumping against each other. Wangji has already gotten everything he wanted but by the crestfallen look on Wei Wuxian’s face, he’s missed out on something. And he was right, hearing the other man groan.

“Ah, I missed out on getting strawberries.” He sighs, shifting his bag to his other hand and taking A-Yuan’s again. “Oh well, sorry bud. We’re going strawberry-less this week.” A-Yuan puffs up in a pout, pulling on Wei Wuxian’s hand. “Bud we should go home, gege has work later. You’re gonna go play with A-Ling, isn’t that gonna be fun?”

Lan Wangji has no idea who A-Ling is but A-Yuan lights up like a christmas tree. “Yay! Yay yay yay! I’m going to play with Ling-ling! Gege, can we go soon? Can we go right now??” A-Yuan has started to bounce up and down, taking Wei Wuxian’s arm with him.

“We have to go home and put things away first! A-Yuan, A-Yuan! C’mon bud.” Wangji suppresses a smile as Wei Wuxian ruffles his son’s hair. “I guess this is where we’ll say bye but ummmm, our next little party session is tomorrow, if you wanna join? Here-” He pulls out his phone and presents it to Wangji with a new contact page. “Put in your number and I’ll text you the info. You don’t have to come, just. If you want to.” But there’s that hopeful undertone and Wangji doesn’t want it to end in disappointment. So he taps his name and his number and passes the phone back.

Wei Wuxian tucks it away and turns that brilliant, lovely smile on him again and Wangji doesn’t want it to stop. “I’ll see you later Wangji-xiong!”

“Mn.” Except he can’t leave because A-Yuan has crossed over to hold Wangji’s pants as he’s holding Wei Wuxian’s hand.

“A-Yuan, we have to go. Gege has his own place too.” But A-Yuan stubbornly shakes his head, determinedly clutching both of them. Wei Wuxian would throw up his hands in exasperation if he had any free and Wangji doesn’t know what to do, not wanting to dislodge the child forcefully. He surveys the area and spots a booth and crouches down.

“Come see?” A-Yuan nods and Wei Wuxian follows, pulled along by their little train. What Wangji was looking at is a small booth that sells handcrafted toys. Rattle drums, stick propped figures of butterflies, even kites all call with warmth and brightness. A-Yuan releases them to pick out a dragonfly and one of the rattle drums, painted a rust red with suns stretched across the covers. “Do you want it?” Wangji curls another small smile as A-Yuan nods vigorously.  

The vendor rings them up and Wei Wuxian sputters as he tries to hand over some cash and is pushed away. Wangji pays in full and declines change, leaving the vendor in wonder. It’s well over the cost of those toys, is he sure? He nods again and then walks out with A-Yuan holding one of his hands and one of Wei Wuxian’s.

“You didn’t have to.” But Wangji can tell that he’s grateful by the relief that relaxes his brow. “You shouldn’t spoil him like that.” A-Yuan giggles as he shakes the hand holding Wangji’s and the rattle drum.

“Good children should be rewarded.” Lan Wangji turns and looks down. “A-Yuan, will you go home now?” A-Yuan seems to consider it like a proposal, a suggestion. But he nods, letting go of Wei Wuxian’s hand to reach up for a hug. Here, Wangji hesitates but with a small sigh, he leans down and allows A-Yuan to give him an enthusiastic hug.

“Thank you rich-gege!” A-Yuan has the same dazzling smile as his father.

“C’mon A-Yuan, we don’t want to keep shijie and A-Ling waiting.” Wei Wuxian reaches out a hand which A-Yuan takes and they begin to amble away, A-Yuan turning to keep waving at Wangji until they vanish into the crowd.

Wangji too, turns away to go home. Before he does though, he hears a ping from his phone. He pulls it out and the front screen glows.

New Message from UNKNOWN NUMBER.

1xx-xxxx-xxxx

It’s Wei Wuxian! Here’s the info! See you tomorrow ;)

He rolls his eyes but the shameless that leaves his mouth is softer, kinder.