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morifinwes · 3 years

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wangxian fic rec list!

aka in which i read fics, write some recs down for aamna and share them!! they're all wangxian fics and uhh @yibobibo i hope you'll like them!!

modern

wolf devours playboy bunny by @greenteafiend (5K, werewolf!lwj, getting together, idk if anyone needs to know that but there's nudity just not uhh explicit)

Lan Zhan has wanted Wei Ying as long as he has known him, and the worst part is that he thinks Wei Ying could want him back.

Too bad he could never in good conscience let himself go there—Wei Ying has a debilitating fear of all things canine, and once a month, Lan Zhan is the exact, precise thing that Wei Ying’s nightmares are made of.

Aka, Lan Zhan is a werewolf.

between the lines by @jywait (19K gaming au!!!, i'm always down for a good gaming au, lwj is the best aksks he's such a good boy)

☆yilingpatriarch☆: pls...give me some face, help me fight these monsters...I'm gonna die

Bluetooth: no.

"You have died." The screen said, and Wei Wuxian threw his hands up in frustration.

resonant frequencies by chinxe (15K, college au, fake dating au, tw mention of cheating but it's brief and no one was cheated on i promise)

In which Wei Wuxian decides that the best way to deal with being in love with Lan Wangji is to pretend to date him for three weeks.

It goes about as well as can be expected.

drift compatible by windoworwhatever (5K, poetry, fluff, drunkji, getting together, college au)

"It was just a fact of life. The sky was blue, university stipends for graduate students working in TA positions barely covered rent, bisexuals cuffed their jeans, Lan Wangji had a massive crush on Wei Wuxian, and spent his time pining and writing research papers about gay subtexts in ancient poetry."

Lan Wangji is in love with Wei Wuxian, and everybody knows, except Wei Wuxian.

the bunny next door by detailsinthefabric (43K, this is mostly fluff and very light angst, and they were neighbors!!!, rabbits!!, aka wangxian's bunny children, this is... so cute i just have to rec it)

Lan Wangji did not know what he was doing. He did not know what he was going to say. He was frozen in place, puzzling over the situation. Maybe he had made the man uncomfortable, which is why he wanted to leave? But his tone had still been so friendly—maybe…

“Would…” he paused, swallowed, forced the last words to come out of his suddenly parched mouth, “would you let me pet him?”

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

Lan Wangji, who doesn't know how to socialize and whose icy demeanor scares everyone away, lets down all his defenses when he meets the bunny next door...oh, and also its owner, Wei Wuxian.

leading tone by silencemostofall (32K, everyone is a music student? or something like that akskk, curse fic, tw panic attacks, tw child abuse, small scene of drunkji, wwx has low self esteem, bro this was so painful to read)

The first time you touch someone you're fated to love, you leave a mark on their skin. If they will love you in return, they'll mark you where you touched them. The deeper the color, the deeper the connection.

Wei Ying has no marks at all.

public places, private thoughts by leahelisabeth (for the love of camelot) ( 8K, cherry magic au, getting together with like... immediate upgrade to fiance status, the author is wrong i crave good wangxian cherry magic aus even tho i haven't even watched cherry magic)

Wei Wuxian had heard the story of course. It had made its rounds through his high school and followed him into his college days. He didn’t think there was any possibility it was true. Virginity was a social construct, invented by creepy old men to exercise dominance over women. The idea that a simple lack of sexual activity before the age of thirty could give one magical powers was absolutely ludicrous.

Wei Wuxian believed this until the morning of his thirtieth birthday.

AKA the Wangxian Cherry Magic AU that absolutely nobody asked for.

i'd be all right (if i could see you) by @thirtysixsavefiles (16K, this was nice, i read this at 6am but it was cute, (while writing this post i must admit i don't remember anything but 6am-me said it's good))

The younger Lan brother is something of an enigma on campus; while Lan Xichen can sometimes be seen in the company of other graduate students or conducting a seminar, Lan Wangji appears to spend all his time in class or in the library. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t attend social events. He doesn’t do anything for fun, as far as Wei Wuxian can tell, and it’s driving Wei Wuxian just a little bit up the wall.

Or, Wei Wuxian convinces Lan Wangji to come to a house party, and then they're assigned to the same group project. Wei Wuxian tries his best, but he is not in possession of all the facts.

axe on leg by itszero (4K, i still don't get why wwx did that but it was nice seeing him jealous for once, jealous!wwx, lwj i love you....)

Wei Wuxian pressed his face into his pillow and screamed. He paused to take a few deep breaths, partially hindered by the pillow, and listened to the sounds of Nie Huaisang slurping his iced coffee, from his seat on Wei Wuxian's desk chair.

Having caught his breath, he resumed his screaming and did not stop at the sound of his dorm room door opening.

"What's wrong with him?" He heard his brother, Jiang Cheng, ask.

The slurping stopped. "He's an idiot."

"He's always been an idiot. Why is he bothered about it now?"

"He forced Lan Wangji to go on a date," Nie Huaisang replied, shaking the ice cubes in his drink.

"Okay and…?"

"With someone else." The slurping resumed.

Wei Wuxian, in all his glorious dumbassery, convinces his boyfriend to go on a date with someone else.

these two most powerful by @stiltonbasket (4K, amnesia, wangxian with children!!!, aksksk this was adorable, dadji!!)

When Lan Wangji went to bed last night, he was alone in a tiny guest room with nothing but the howling of the wind in the mountains and his own lonely thoughts for company.

But when he opened his eyes in the morning, Wei Ying was asleep beside him.

(In which Lan Wangji loses twenty years' worth of memories after a night-hunt gone wrong, and his life as a doting father and husband continues without a hitch somehow.)

good things come to those who wait [but i ain't in a patient phase] by @cerlunas (4K, getting together, pining lwj)

Lan Wangji can't take it anymore.

“I love you”, he says, and god, it feels terrifying. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”

“Lan Zhan…” Wei Wuxian starts, but Lan Wangji doesn’t want to hear it.

He grabs his cup and drinks everything. He doesn’t know what face Wei Wuxian is making at him right now, and it’s okay.

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian repeats louder, but it’s too late. He is already falling asleep.

Or, even after 13 years, Lan Wangji is still in love with his best friend. Maybe it's time to open up.

wei ying, will you marry m- oh my god he swallowed the ring! by selene210 (2K, marriage proposals, crack, marriage proposals but.. they go wrong)

“A ring?”

And indeed it was. The ring Lan Wangji was going to propose to Wei Ying with. That the man had now choked on.

“You swallowed it.”

“It was in my soufflé! Why did you put a ring in my soufflé Lan Zhan- oh. oh”

of glittery valentine's cards by @soft-fics (3K, valentine's day, this was adorable aksk, a-yuan best boy!!)

Lan Zhan didn't want to know what his best friend had planned for Valentine's Day; his heart would simply not be able to handle it. When his son tells him that he made Wei Ying a Valentine's Day card, though, Lan Zhan decided to bring it over anyway.

of coffee and white tea by @soft-fics (9K, fluff, lwj doesn't like coffee, wwx buys him coffee, then they switch drinks, again and again and again, the staff ships it lmao, tbh jc shouldn't have done that like wtf)

For the fourth time this week a stranger orders him a cup of coffee. Lan Wangji wonders how exactly to tell this man to stop ordering him coffee he doesn't even like. Turns out, buying the other white tea and switching drinks is not the best way to go about it

canon setting

on the importance of restraint (or lack thereof) by nixthothou (4K, in which sizhui snaps, i love that boy, no like seriously he's the best boy)

Lan Sizhui does not usually find himself in the company of Sect Leader Jiang.

Suffice to say, Lan Sizhui's feelings toward him are conflicted.

lan wangji is wei wuxian's baby by lilycs (3K, i was craving fluff while reading this, lwj my beloved, drunk!lwj)

Lan Wangji gets drunk from barely a cup of alcohol, becoming a whiny baby and asking his husband for cuddles.

one of our own by glitteringmoonlight (8K, wei wuxian & lan sect, 5+1 things, in which they learn to love him, they're all part of the wwx protection squad lead by lwj, wangxian isn't the focus but !!! THIS)

Times change, but some people remain the same.

The Lans are nothing, if not aware of this.

For one of their own, they will stand against the world.

Or, 5 times the Lans defended Wei Wuxian, and the 1 time he was there to see it happen.

so why not crack your skull when the mind swells by @greenteafiend (13K, love curse, post cql canon, curses, getting together, fluff, so much fluff, lwj tries to talk about his emotions!, lwj pov)

Lan Wangji detects the curse trying to curl through his heart meridians like smoke. A love curse, then. It must have been cast remotely somehow to have found him in his bed in Cloud Recesses. No matter. Lan Wangji crushes it easily, enveloping it in his spiritual energy, and then squeezing. Curse averted, Lan Wangji closes his eyes and goes back to sleep. He thinks no more of it.

Two days later, Wei Wuxian arrives in Cloud Recesses.

Or, Wei Wuxian is cursed to feel terrible pain when he and Lan Wangji aren’t touching.

i started from the bottom / now i'm rich by x_los (57K, time travel, fix it, jealous lwj, crack treated serious, god this is so good tho, wwx/wrh & wwx/jgs but like as a joke and it doesn't really happen, but it has its purpose!!)

“First, you get the money. Then you get the power, respect - hos come last.”

Wen Qing traps Wei Wuxian in the Demon Slaughtering Cave, but Wei Wuxian isn’t interested in being the beneficiary of the Wen Remnants’ noble sacrifice. His efforts to free himself accidentally send him back to the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign. Coreless but armed with demonic cultivation, knowledge of the future and his wits, Wei Wuxian takes advantage of this opportunity to come out on top of both the war and its aftermath—before either has a chance to happen—by marrying and swiftly burying the cultivation world’s worst men.

Lan Wangji is confused, hurt, and uncomfortably aroused by Wei Wuxian’s improbably elaborate series of Sect-themed bridal negligees.

lead me on through by mrsronweasley (55K, they're in love your honor, arranged marriage but they don't know to whom, basically wwx & lwj want to practice kissing which then goes beyond kissing but not the whole way y'know, lxc the best wingman tho)

"Who do you think your betrothed is?" Wei Wuxian asks, sprawling out in front of Lan Zhan and enjoying the prim thinning of his lips at the question. He shouldn't be sprawling—they're in the library, for one, and Lan Zhan is studying, for another—but he can't help himself. Wei Wuxian is a sprawler.

"I do not believe this to be of importance," Lan Zhan responds, without turning his gaze away from his book.

"What!" Wei Wuxian sits up. "How can you say that? Of course it's important! This is the person you'll be with for the rest of your life, Lan Zhan."

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ibijau · 2 years

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Persuasion AU pt4 / On A03

It came as something of a surprise to Lan Xichen when his brother joined him over breakfast the next morning and offered that they should spar together. Lan Xichen assumed that Wen Yuan had shared with his fathers the conversation of the previous day, causing Lan Wangji to become concerned upon hearing that his brother no longer practised martial arts as he once did.

Lan Xichen tried to refuse the request, knowing how rusty he had become, but spoiling Lan Wangji was an old fault of his. What Lan Wangji wanted, he usually obtained. Before very long Lan Xichen was following him to an empty square of bare dirt which was used as training grounds.

Because that place was a little out of the way, and it was still so early, their friendly spar started without witnesses. A mercy, when Lan Xichen felt rusty and as clumsy as a child picking up a sword for the first time. If his old teachers could have seen him, they would have been depressed to see their star pupil fallen so low, and would have scolded him for his lack of effort. But Lan Wangji instead chose to show his brother the same kindness and patience he had been shown by him as a child. On their second attempt Lan Wangji slowed his movements so Lan Xichen could more easily counter them, keeping his attack simple at first and only gaining in speed and complexity as his brother remembered half forgotten habits.

It was pleasant to be sparring together. Lan Wangji had always been one of only two people whose skill offered Lan Xichen a real challenge, along with Nie Mingjue. Having lost both sparring companions at the same time had made it all the easier for Qingheng-Jun to demand that his son set aside his passion to instead focus more on the sort of administrative work that he deemed useful to their sect. But just as Lan Xichen had felt himself come to life again when flying from Gusu to Yiling, now his blood was coursing through his vein with an energy he’d thought lost forever.

That moment of sheer joy was only shattered when others started waking up and going about their occupations. Lan Xichen could ignore them at first, but only until he heard a familiar laugh not far, the sound of which unsettled him as he was avoiding a thrust from his brother’s sword. Lan Xichen tripped on the dirt ground and lost his balance, falling on his side. The pain was unpleasant though ultimately inconsequential, but the shame of such clumsiness burned him, especially when he turned to look in the direction of that laughter.

To his relief, it wasn’t his performance that had been laughed at. Instead, what he saw was Wen Yuan and Lan Jingyi walking on each side of Nie Huaisang, who was apparently telling the two boys a story so funny he couldn’t get it out without laughing. He used to do that as a youth too, laughing while telling Lan Xichen about some mischief he’d taken part in until most of the story was lost to his own hilarity, making Lan Xichen laugh as well because that joy had been so contagious.

It had been painful to see Nie Huaisang changed and serious, but it was worse yet to see that something remained after all of the boy he had been.

Worst still, when Wen Yuan noticed that his father and uncle were there, he pointed them out to his companions, and immediately Nie Huaisang’s expression turned cold again, his eyes disdainful as he looked down on Lan Xichen.

Lan Xichen quickly got up again, and started making light of his fall, thanking his brother for the moment together but taking its outcome as proof that it should not be repeated.

“But it was the first time in a while, wasn’t it?” Wen Yuan argued, having come closer to check his uncle wasn’t hurt, his two companions just behind him. He turned to Lan Wangji. “Father, what do you say?”

“Xiongzhang is rusty,” Lan Wangji said, always too honest to make his opinion less blunt. “But the skill is still there. If xiongzhang wishes, we can spare in the mornings. I would enjoy it.”

Lan Xichen immediately protested. Lan Wangji had more important things to do, Lan Wangji had nothing to gain from practising with an inferior opponent. It would be useless, since Lan Xichen was only there for a brief time and would likely return to idleness once he went back to the Cloud Recesses, where he had nobody to spar with. He didn’t want to impose on his brother.

“I enjoyed this,” Lan Wangji replied with a saddened frown. It had to be a lie, or at least an effort at politeness, since Lan Xichen had truly been a very inferior opponent. Lan Xichen was surprised that his brother would pretend otherwise, but he appreciated that his ego was taken into account.

“If he doesn’t want, he doesn’t want,” Nie Huaisang coldly remarked, after being silent the entire time. “If Lan gongzi prefers to give up rather than make efforts for the things he enjoys, that’s his problem.”

“Nie gongzi, don’t say it like that,” Lan Jingyi mildly scolded.

“I have no stakes in this, I get to be as impolite as I please,” Nie Huaisang replied with a smirk. “Now, do you boys have anything more to say to Lan gongzi, or can we keep going? If we lose any more time, it’ll be too late to see those particular birds today, and I’ll be quite cross at everyone here for making me lose that opportunity.”

Wen Yuan and Lan Jingyi immediately cried out that they were done, and without further delay the three of them left, while Lan Xichen felt his heart clench. He remembered going bird watching with Nie Huaisang, long ago, holding his hand as they silently walked through bushes, trying to catch a glimpse of some rare bird or other than lived in the back hills of the Cloud Recesses, too focused to even think of kissing. Back then, Nie Huaisang had made it clear that it was not a hobby he shared with just anyone, because he did not trust most people to truly understand the pure joy and beauty of a bird in flight.

Perhaps it was still a hobby he only shared with specific people.

“Nie gongzi seems to be getting along very well with the boys,” Lan Xichen casually remarked to his brother as they too left the training field. “Or is it just my impression?”

“The boys like him,” Lan Wangji confirmed. “He makes them laugh. Lan Jingyi seems very fond of him.”

Lan Xichen forced himself to smile. “Yes, I can remember how funny Nie gongzi was when he liked. There is something of an age difference, though. Or am I misunderstanding the situation, and they are only being friendly?”

“Hm. Wen Yuan’s affections are already engaged,” Lan Wangji replied. “Lan Jingyi might be flirting. You should ask Wei Ying. He notices these things.”

“He likes to gossip, you mean,” Lan Xichen said, smiling with a little more warmth. “I might ask him. The age difference is not ideal, but I also cannot blame Jingyi if he should be falling for Nie gongzi. I remember him being easy to like, and quite a lot of fun, just the sort of person for someone like Jingyi. Though Nie gongzi seems to have grown more serious than he used to be. But I suppose with the war, it could not have been avoided.”

“Certain things have happened,” Lan Wangji sombrely said. “I cannot say more.” He paused, and gave his brother a long look. “You used to be his confidant,” he recalled. “You should ask him. It would be good for him to talk to someone.”

Surprised that his brother had noticed anything about his past closeness with Nie Huaisang, Lan Xichen fell silent a moment, unsure what to say, and how to say it.

“I doubt he would wish to talk to me,” Lan Xichen merely replied. “Certain things happened between us, and I think he has a very poor opinion of me now. I cannot even blame him. My actions have been less than ideal. I made choices that hurt him.”

“He knows why you didn’t join the war with Wei Ying and me,” Lan Wangji objected, and that was another good reason for Nie Huaisang to despise Lan Xichen, though not the one he’d had in mind at the moment. “He was angry at first, but learned to understand.”

“I doubt that.”

“He said so,” Lan Wangji calmly insisted. “Some years ago.”

“Forgiving me in theory is different from forgiving me in practice,” Lan Xichen retorted before he could stop himself. He took a deep breath, and smiled again. “As I said, I cannot blame him for his dislike of me. I will try to avoid him for the rest of my stay here, so this doesn’t become uncomfortable. He is your friend, and Wei Wuxian’s, and I know he is helping with what you are doing here. I do not wish to interfere with that.”

“Huaisang does not dislike xiongzhang.”

“It's fine that he does.”

“But he does not,” Lan Wangji said, stubborn as ever. “He has expressed worry since arriving here. He asked about your health. He asked why you had given up martial arts.”

Had it been anyone but Lan Wangji saying this, Lan Xichen would have dismissed it as an attempt to be polite and minimise the extent of Nie Huaisang’s hatred for the sake of peace while they all stayed together. But Lan Wangji would rather have said nothing, or said an unpleasant truth, rather than to toy with facts just to avoid unpleasant confrontations.

“It is still a fact that he has shown no interest in talking to me,” Lan Xichen replied. “I think you overestimate the goodwill he might have toward me.”

“Xiongzhang has not spoken to Huaisang either, has he?”

“Last time we parted, Nie gongzi made it clear to me that he did not wish to ever speak to me again. I am merely respecting his wishes. If he really changed his mind, I trust he will make it known. So far, whatever forgiveness he has expressed in your company hasn’t been enough to bear being long in my presence.”

“Hm,” Lan Wangji replied, unconvinced.

Still, sensing that his brother was becoming upset by that topic of conversation, he stopped talking about it, and they walked silently the rest of the way. Inside the house they met with Wei Wuxian who was just waking up and complaining against Nie Huaisang who had stolen his two best assistants just so he could flirt, and lamenting that poor Jin Ling had better visit soon if he didn’t want to be replaced. Lan Xichen listened to these joking reproaches for as long as he could bear, then withdrew when it became too much, pointing out the need to change into clean clothes, since his had been ruined by his fall earlier.

Alone again, and removing his mud-soiled robes, Lan Xichen allowed himself a moment of self-pity to consider what his brother had told him about Nie Huaisang. It couldn’t be that Nie Huaisang’s feelings were unchanged. He remembered too well the anger his then-lover had expressed after Lan Xichen had apparently changed his mind regarding a possible marriage, a cold rage that had carried on until the announcement of a war breaking out between Qinghe Nie and Qishan Wen shortly after. They hadn’t said a word between that rejection and Nie Huaisang’s hasty departure, yet Lan Xichen had still come to bid him goodbye, hoping that perhaps they might remain friends. Nie Huaisang had taken one look at him, and asked whether he and his sect would fight alongside Qinghe Nie. When Lan Xichen had explained the choice wasn’t his to make, Nie Huaisang had stated that in that case they had nothing more to say, and that he hoped never to meet Lan Xichen again.

It was impossible for Nie Huaisang’s affection to have survived being rejected first as a lover, and then as a friend. If he had inquired after Lan Xichen’s state, it was only out of friendship for Lan Wangji, who might have looked worried as well and merely needed to be given a chance to talk about it. Nie Huaisang’s kindness might have had Lan Xichen as a topic, but it was not directed at him.

It was better that way, Lan Xichen thought while putting on a clean robe. His own pain, caused by seeing the person he had once loved ardently and realising some ashes of that fire lingered still, was too cruel to be wished upon anyone, least of all the object of that affection. It was better that Nie Huaisang should loathe him entirely rather than hold conflicted feelings.

It was better, and Lan Xichen would carry that pain alone, as he has always done.

#xisang #lan xichen #lan wangji #nie huaisang #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #persuasion au

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biwenqing · 4 years

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Lwj getting married into the jiang sect is just a lot of him having to get used to his husband and brother in law acting like children. They WILL throw each other into the water at least once a day, no they often don't have a reason. Prank wars, lwj learnt to stay out of it when his robes turned hot pink an hour before an important meeting. Food wars to de stress. He hears various versions of I WILL BREAK YOUR FUCKING LEGS at least 7 times a day. Jiang yanli is his only saving grace.

I can't tell you how much I love all of this! I ran to open a document and um, this happened. The title of this could probably be "three times Sect Leader Jiang was (righteously) dunked in the waters off Lotus Pier". Also included some of our favorite Wens because I need them to be safe and happy :D

Lan Wangji had finished his morning meditation and was brewing some tea so it would be ready when his husband awoke. Wei Wuxian was sleeping deeply, the sounds of the river coming in their window like a lullaby. Lan Wangji found he enjoyed the sounds as much as Wei Wuxian seemed to, and was getting used to his new home. There were many lovely things about living on Lotus Pier.

There were a few things that Lan Wangji was... not so fond of, however. One of these let himself in with barely a knock on the door as Lan Wangji carefully added the tea leaves to the hot water.

Jiang Cheng barely glanced Lan Wangji's way, giving a grunt of maybe acknowledgment before going into the bedroom. He returned with Wei Wuxian tossed over his shoulder. Wei Wuxian was protesting loudly at such interruption to his sleep as Jiang Cheng left through the still open front door.

Lan Wangji would have been alarmed if this was the first occurrence of his husband being abducted. Now he just continued to make the tea and listened to the distant splash and swearing the followed. A second splash soon came and he thought he caught a shout of, "I'll break your legs for this!"

Lan Wangji had figured out several things since joining the Jiang family. The most important was that Wei Wuxian and his brother expressed their affection... differently than he was used to. Maybe it was the fact that they had all grown up a little too fast with the war. The fact was that Jiang Cheng, while a sect leader, was still a young man who wanted to goof off with his older brother. Wei Wuxian was more than happy to indulge him in this.

Wei Wuxian appeared, dripping wet but smiling as he shut the door. Lan Wangji had set the table for their breakfast in the time it took him to get out of the water. He went and dried off, returning with a smile still in place. He held one hand behind his back as he leaned down to kiss Lan Wangji's cheek.

"Good morning love. I have something for you," he murmured with another kiss, settling close to Lan Wangji's side.

"Good morning," Lan Wangji said back, feeling a smile tug on his lips. It grew as Wei Wuxian presented him with a beautiful lotus flower, a lovely light purple like a summer sunset. "It is beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you," Wei Wuxian said back, completely earnest as he always was in his complements and Lan Wangji felt his ears warm. Wei Wuxian reached out a hand to tuck his hair back, exposing an ear and kissing it before turning his focus to breakfast.

They ate in contented silence as if Jiang Cheng's interruption never happened.

[...]

When the Wen's joined Lotus Pier, things in this area didn't get better, nor did they get worse. Lan Wangji quite liked both Wen Qing and Wen Ning; they were pleasant, intelligent people and both clearly cared a great deal for Wei Wuxian. But what this did add was poor Wen Ning was often dragged into whatever current prank war Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng were engaged in.

That day, Lan Wangji was settled in quiet study, accompanied by Jiang Yanli and Wen Qing. He had borrowed some books from the Cloud Recesses library the last time he had visited his brother. In addition to the texts he needed to continue his study of musical cultivation, he had brought back some tomes on politics (for Jiang Yanli) and medicine (for Wen Qing). Both women were ideal companions for study. They would sometimes engage in soft debate with each other on matters of sect politics and law, welcoming any input Lan Wangji might have, but not expecting it.

That was the current state of things when the high pitched laughing shriek of little Wen Yuan echoed their way before the boy burst through the door. He went straight for Lan Wangji, crawling onto his lap. Though the boy was wet and muddy, Lan Wangji wrapped his arms around him as Yuan buried his face into Lan Wangji's chest. The boy was giggling, so he wasn't in any type of true distress.

Wei Wuxian was the next one through the door and went to "hide" behind Lan Wangji, looking around his shoulder at the door. His husband as equally muddy. "Lan Zhan, you must protect us!"

Wen Ning appeared third, glancing awkwardly around before carefully taking off his shoes and going to sit beside (and slightly behind) his sister.

"What seems to be the matter?" Lan Wangji asked, raising a brow as he tried to look behind himself. He caught Jiang Yanli's eyes as she hid her laughter behind a sleeve.

"Well, Wen Ning and a-Yuan were helping me in my project to draw all the different kinds of frogs that live with the lotuses," Wei Wuxian explained.

"I catched three frogs!" Yuan reported, holding up three fingers.

"You did! You're so good at counting and frog catching." Wei Wuxian reached around Lan Wangji so he could ruffle Yuan's hair. The boy beamed, and Lan Wangji felt his heart squeeze in a way that was becoming more and more common when he was around both his husband and the little boy. "Anyway, Jiang Cheng showed up and he scared all the frogs away."

Speaking of Jiang Cheng, he was the final one to burst through the door. Jiang Yanli was laughing out right now, as Wen Qing sighed in annoyance. "If you scare my brother, I will end you," she said flatly before Jiang Cheng could come in any further.

"He's not so innocent in this!" Jiang Cheng protested, even as the flush on his face turned into more of a blush. Wei Wuxian stifled a laugh against Lan Wangji's shoulder.

"Excuse me, do I need to remind you of the time he saved your life?" Wen Qing asked, standing. Wen Ning stayed seated and peaked around her legs.

"I repaid that debt!"

"No, your siblings did." Wen Qing stepped forward. Not even bothering to slip on her shoes, she grabbed Jiang Cheng by the ear and dragged him out of the room.

The yelp and splash that came next weren't followed by the usual curses and threats. Or maybe it was, but Lan Wangji couldn't hear over the sound of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli's laugher. Wei Wuxian fell over in his mirth, and Yuan took that as a cue to leave the safety of Lan Wangji's lap to crawl all over Wei Wuxian.

"You both need a bath," Lan Wangji said, closing his books and rerolling scrolls. Standing, he scooped up Yuan and offered a hand to Wei Wuxian.

His husband took it, springing to his feet and pressing a kiss to Lan Wangji's cheek. "Come on, a-Yuan! Bath time. Then we can have lunch!"

"Yay!" Yuan cheered, loud in Lan Wangji's ear. Much louder than would be permitted in the Cloud Recesses. Lan Wangji found he was glad that he didn't need to ask the little boy to quiet his joy.

[...]

The Lotus Pier was hosting a meeting between the sects and Lan Wangji found himself feeling almost jealous of Wen Qing and Wen Ning, who were to hide during the entirety of the event. This was certainly unfair of him to think because the reason that the Wen siblings had to hide was due to the great injustice inflicted upon their people. However, Lan Wangji couldn't help the petty thought.

Instead, he was on his way to change into his finest white robe. As he approached the rooms he shared with Wei Wuxian, he could hear the sounds of an argument from within. The front door was open, so Lan Wangji entered his home to find Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian in debate.

"I didn't mean to!" Jiang Cheng was protesting.

"You tell Lan Zhan that!" Wei Wuxian said back.

"Tell me what?" Lan Wangji said, using his most intimidating voice.

"I washed our robes!" Wei Wuxian said, turning with a smile. "Well, I tried to. Someone-" Wei Wuxian shoved Jiang Cheng's shoulder. "-tried to prank me."

"I didn't know Lan Wangji's clothes would be there!" Jiang Cheng said though he wouldn't look Lan Wangji in the eye, glaring instead at the floor.

Lan Wangji had a sinking feeling in his stomach. "What happened to my robes?"

Wei Wuxian vanished into the bedroom, to come out carrying two pairs of Lan Wangji's best robes. The robes that were supposed to be white as the snow in Gusu and were now as pink as a lotus bud. Lan Wangji took a moment to process this, then to mourn the fact that it was far too late to get a message to his brother and ask him to bring replacements.

Lan Wangji turned to Wei Wuxian and asked, "How long until the guests arrive?"

"We probably still have until afternoon," Wei Wuxian said, his expression turning from amused to curious.

"Good." Plenty of time to get ready still. Lan Wangji crossed the room and grabbed Jiang Cheng's arm. Jiang Cheng was already dressed in his elaborate robes and Lan Wangji didn't even try not to wrinkle them.

"Hey, wait!" Jiang Cheng said as Lan Wangji tugged the man out of his house. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Be quiet," Lan Wangji ordered, using the tone he used to when he caught other disciples breaking the rules. He marched them to a suitable location, Jiang Cheng still protesting, threatening him, and halfheartedly apologizing. Letting Jiang Cheng go, Lan Wangji gave him a cold look and then pushed.

The shock on Jiang Cheng's face when he realized a second too late what was happening was more than worth whatever trouble he might get in for pushing a sect leader into the water. As was Wei Wuxian's full-body laugh that had him leaning against Lan Wangji in order to stay standing.

#wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #wen qing #wen ning #lan yuan #i made a tag for this au now:#lwj on lotus pier #my fic #a talks #a answers #yunmeng-shuangjie #jiang sibs #wen sibs #wuxian's sibling collection #wen sibs and wei wuxian

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taizi · 3 years

Text

the ship sways but the heart is steady

chapter three: build bridges with these arms

the untamed pairing: jiang cheng & wei ying, lan zhan/wei ying, jiang cheng/wen qing word count: 3794 summary: Wei Ying’s friends are at rock-bottom, and Wei Ying puts his life on hold to help them put theirs back together. To absolutely no one’s surprise except Wei Ying’s, his family goes with him. read on ao3

Jiang Cheng doesn’t remember dropping the phone, but he must have, because Wen Qing is holding it now and talking to A-Li in the sharp, rapid-fire way she speaks when she’s frightened. He doesn’t remember getting off the couch or leaving the room, but he’s pacing back and forth on the veranda, the warm glow of the porch light pushing away encroaching nightfall. And he doesn’t remember Wei Ying coming after him, but his brother is there, watching with wide, anxious eyes, his hands balled into fists in the front of his shirt.

“I don’t fucking believe it,” Jiang Cheng bites out, his heart beating so fast it’s painful. “I can’t believe she didn’t fucking—she didn’t fucking call? She couldn’t let us know that—that our sister—”

“Maybe she meant to,” Wei Ying says hoarsely. “Maybe she—forgot.”

“Our mother never forgot a single thing in her fucking life as long as she could hold it against us.” He’s so angry he feels brittle with it, as though moving too much or too fast would cause his body to break. “A-Li asked her to call us and she didn’t. A-Li wanted us there and we weren’t.”

His baby nephew was coming early, and his sister was having an emergency C-section, and his brother-in-law was pacing a waiting room by himself for hours waiting desperately for good news, and Jiang Cheng was just fucking around in a lake the whole time.

A-Li’s voice was so tired and shaky that Jiang Cheng knew, inherently, how bad it was.

She didn’t say it on the phone, of course she didn’t, but she didn’t need to. All of Jin Ling’s useless uncles have been reading every article about pregnancy and prenatal care that they could get their hands on from the moment A-Li told them she was expecting, and they each, to a man, could probably write a white paper on the risks of preterm labor.

Yanli could have died from complications. It wasn’t unheard of even now, in the twenty-first century. She could have bled too much, could have been gone, and Jiang Cheng wouldn’t have known until it was too late. He wouldn’t have been there to hold her.

Mother was supposed to call. She didn’t.

It’s like the sudden collapsing of some integral foundation. The weight-bearing limit was reached and the floor is crumbling beneath him and this building he’s lived in his whole life that he mistook for mortar and stone is actually some childish construction of paper and wax. This place he thought would withstand storm and fire and erosion is finally falling apart after so many years of careful repairs, so much frantic patchwork.

Mother hurt them over and over and over again, but she was still their mother. Family is just hard, Jiang Cheng had always thought. Family hurts. That’s just the way it is, it just costs you every day, and you’re always discovering how much farther you can push your threshold, how much more you can actually take.

Except... his siblings never hurt him. Never on purpose. He doesn’t look at A-Li or A-Ying and feel anything but fondness and exasperation and loyalty for them. He would do anything for them.

Wen Ning plainly adores his sister, and Wen Qing’s world revolves around her brother. None of their immediate relatives stepped in to help them after the fire, clearly screening their calls, none of them eager to sacrifice their time or money, but Granny has been almost a constant presence in their lives since they got here. She adopted all of them, no relation required.

Wei Ying came to the Jiangs when he was five, an emergency placement with the second family listed on his parents’ will, because his legal godfather was dealing with the death of his brother and sister-in-law, and the subsequent adoption of his young nephews. By the time Lan Qiren could be reached and came dashing to New York, it had been almost a week, and Wei Ying and A-Li and Jiang Cheng were all comfortably attached at the hip.

Rather than uproot his traumatized godson again, so soon after the initial upheaval of his young life, Lan Qiren reached an agreement with mother and father to let Wei Ying stay with them. He paid for all of Wei Ying’s expenses and then some. Jiang Cheng only knows because mother likes to complain about being short-changed when she’s drunk.

And then when his nephews were a little older, and he could step down from his role as director of a ridiculously prestigious music school, Uncle Qiren retired, and relocated his family from Suzhou to New York City. Wei Ying always had a second place to go home to if he needed one. His siblings were always welcome there, too. Uncle Qiren was strict and never let them get away with a goddamn thing, but he keeps all their pictures on his desk.

Family, Jiang Cheng finally realizes at twenty-three years old, isn’t supposed to hurt.

You’re supposed to be loved. You’re not supposed to have to buy it.

Wei Ying is crying in that awful, silent way he cries, as if he’s not sure he’s allowed to make a sound. Jiang Cheng storms over and drags him into a hug that’s probably too tight, and Wei Ying hugs him back just as hard, and for a moment that’s all there is.

Night is creeping in around them, inky and inexorable. They’re suspended in the warm orange porch light like a couple of sailors marooned at sea. Jiang Cheng holds onto his brother, and finally lets go of someone else.

It is silently agreed-upon that Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying need to see their sister. Wei Ying tries to apologize for leaving in the middle of retiling one of the bathrooms and Wen Qing gets properly angry with him for it.

“He’ll finish when he comes back,” Jiang Cheng promises, which ends up sounding more like a promise that they’re going to come back at all.

“The tiles in the bathroom are literally the least of my concerns,” Wen Qing snaps, and that sounds more like she’s saying she doesn’t need a promise, she knows they will.

They barely pack anything, they just sort of move around the house in anxious circles until the airport shuttle shows up, and then they shove on their shoes and grab blindly for bags and jackets.

Goodbyes are made on the veranda. After living together and rebuilding a home together, the embraces come easily. Jiang Cheng doesn’t even have a chance to feel self-conscious about any of it.

“The tickets should be in your email,” Lan Zhan says.

Wei Ying checks his phone and frowns. “You only got two?”

Lan Zhan says, “I will stay here.”

His eyes are dark and unreadable, but Wei Ying must see something in them that Jiang Cheng doesn’t. He drops his bag and shuffles forward and Lan Zhan puts his arms around him. He stands there like some ancient, immovable structure, like a load-bearing wall, like Wei Ying could bring absolutely anything to him and Lan Zhan would help him hold it.

“Give the bunnies a hundred kisses for me while I’m gone,” Wei Ying mumbles against Lan Zhan’s shoulder, muffled and wet in a telling way.

“A hundred kisses,” Lan Zhan agrees solemnly, and presses the first one into Wei Ying’s hair.

A-Yuan, holding Wen Ning’s hand, largely confused and a little troubled by the tense atmosphere, earnestly assures that he’ll take care of the bunnies. Wei Ying ruffles his hair playfully, and then finally seems ready to go.

“Try not to let the place fall apart without me,” Jiang Cheng says to Wen Qing.

“I’ll do my best,” she replies. She doesn’t reach out to him with her hands, but her eyes seem to.

Jiang Cheng can’t get her eyes out of his head.

Yanli is pale and tired and beautiful. She lifts her head as they come into her private hospital room, and then lifts her arms immediately, and Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying both run to her like they’re children again. She’s sobbing, trying to wrap her frail arms around them as hard as she can.

“I missed you so much,” she says. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

Jiang Cheng can’t think of how close they came to losing her or he’ll go insane. He just sits on the edge of the bed and holds both of his siblings and doesn’t make fun of Wei Ying for crying as much as Yanli.

Jin Zixuan comes in with a nurse and a bassinet at that point, and there are deep bruises under his eyes and his clothes are as unkempt as Jiang Cheng has ever seen them, but he’s smiling.

The nurse bustles around cheerfully, checking vitals and talking to A-Li about how well the results of some screening or another turned out, but Jiang Cheng can’t focus on anything except the tiny little swaddle of butter-yellow blankets that Jin Zixuan is lifting out of the bassinet.

“A-Ling, this is your Uncle Cheng,” Jin Zixuan says softly, passing the infant into Jiang Cheng’s arms. He doesn’t take his hands away until Jiang Cheng’s apparent panic must have faded, and then he’s suddenly sitting there holding his nephew.

Jin Ling is faintly purple, and his tiny limbs are all curled up like he still hasn’t realized he has room to stretch them out now, and his face is pinched in a moue of absolute distaste for the world in general.

“Oh my god,” Wei Ying says. He leans against Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, smoothing a finger against the soft mop of dark hair on Jin Ling’s head, and the tiny seashell curl of his ear, impossibly gentle. “What a weird-looking baby.”

“Shut up, you asshole,” Jiang Cheng snaps. Now he’s crying, too. “He’s perfect.”

Yanli is beaming at them, leaning into the arm that Jin Zixuan wraps around her shoulders, and asks about California. Wei Ying launches into animated chatter about all their projects and all their progress. Surrounded by them, some jangling, dislocated thing in Jiang Cheng’s chest finally begins to settle.

The day that A-Li and Ling-er are discharged from the hospital, Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng are skulking around the overpriced gift shop on the first floor. Lan Huan is with them, and Jiang Cheng is trying to talk him down from spending eighty dollars on a giant teddy bear, when he sees her.

His mother, making her way through the lobby toward them. Something cold and sharp replaces the warm golden core of him in an instant. He puts a hand on Lan Huan’s shoulder and says, “Keep my brother here.”

Lan Huan blinks. His eyes follow Jiang Cheng’s gaze, and his pleasant expression sours.

“Of course,” he says. “He can help me pick out a bear.”

“Jesus christ, with the bears,” Jiang Cheng mutters, and shoulders past him to get out of the gift shop, cutting his mother off outside the door.

“So you’re finally home,” she says by way of greeting. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”

“We’re not doing this here,” he mutters, hyper-aware of Wei Ying puttering around somewhere not even ten feet away. Turning on his heel, Jiang Cheng leads the way past the gift shop, away from the busy atrium and the receptionist’s desk, trusting his mother’s need to have the last word will compel her to follow.

He stops abruptly in an empty hallway somewhere between the billing and record departments and turns to face her.

“I didn’t come here today to play childish games,” mother says, sounding weary of him, of all things.

And it hurts, how much Jiang Cheng still loves her. How much he still wants to love her. His entire life is a series of attempts to trick her into feeling something for him, feeling anything for him. Trying to win her affection. Attempting the impossible.

“You didn’t call,” he says.

Yu Ziyuan scoffs. “You made it fairly clear that you weren’t interested in anything I had to say to you.”

“A-Li wanted you to call,” Jiang Cheng insists, the temper he inherited cresting inside him like a wave, or a wall of fire. “She could have—do you even care that she could have died? That she was scared? She wanted you to call us. And you just decided not to, to get back at us for disobeying you? I’m twenty-three years old! If I want to go to California to help my friends, I’ll go to fucking California!”

He’s never in his life raised his voice at her like this. A small, childish corner of his heart quails from the stunned anger on her face.

He clenches his fists to keep his hands from shaking.

“You stay the fuck away from us,” Jiang Cheng snarls. “All of us. I mean it. We’re done.”

Family, he thinks, isn’t supposed to hurt.

When he starts to step past her, mother grabs his arm hard enough that her long nails manage to pinch even through the sleeve of his denim jacket.

Knee-jerk, he rips himself away from her. He never forgets to flinch.

His mother stares at him like she’s never seen anything like him before, her hand hovering in the air between them. Jiang Cheng takes a step back, and then another.

He thinks of his sister’s precious life, his nephew’s, used as some sort of bargaining chip.

“We’re done,” he says. It comes out quieter than he meant for it to. It comes out sounding like he really, actually means it.

If something flickers in his mother’s expression, if her hand trembles, if she shifts towards him, he doesn’t see it. He’s already spinning around and heading back the way he came, not quite fast enough to call it fleeing. When Jiang Cheng rounds the corner, he runs headlong into someone who catches him by the shoulder before he can stumble.

Wei Ying’s gray eyes are wide and full of pain. Jiang Cheng doesn’t need to know how much he overheard to know that all that hurt is for Jiang Cheng’s sake, and A-Li’s, with hardly any left over for himself. Wei Ying never had to wonder if Yu Ziyuan loved him—he always knew she didn’t, no matter how much his siblings tried to convince him she did.

Jiang Cheng sinks forward against him, head falling against Wei Ying’s shoulder. He’s still trembling with anger, but now it feels more like grief.

Wei Ying hugs him, cheek pressed to Jiang Cheng’s hair, and after a moment he rocks them both from side-to-side.

“Come on, A-Cheng,” he says gently. “You’ll feel better once you see how much Lan Huan spent on Ling-er’s teddy bear.”

“Oh my god,” Jiang Cheng mutters. He already feels a little bit better.

They end up leaving a week later. A-Li promises to come visit the second the baby is cleared for travel, and kisses Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying both on the cheek. Jin Zixuan waves goodbye at them with Ling-er’s tiny hand.

Flying stand-by gets them home whole hours ahead of schedule, and they land in California at something like two in the morning. Neither of them want to wake up their friends, so they spend a small fortune on an Uber instead.

Predictably, Wei Ying’s eyelids start to droop the second the car pulls onto the highway. Jiang Cheng only nudges him awake when they enter city limits. As they pass the township sign, Jiang Cheng’s heart twists in his chest, like a dog perking up at the sound of a key in the front door. The Uber driver squints in confusion at the GPS screen, so Wei Ying leans up over the middle console to direct him down the proper county road.

They pull up in front of the villa and Jiang Cheng’s whole body sort of sighs in relief.

Wei Ying is beelining towards the front door before Jiang Cheng is even entirely out of the car, juggling bags to dig his keys out of his pocket. He’s got that look on his face of single-minded focus, a look that says he is going to get to his fiance in the next two minutes even if he has to break a window to do it.

“You’re so dumb,” Jiang Cheng says, and shoulders him aside to unlock the door.

“Your face is dumb,” Wei Ying retorts maturely. He kicks off his boots and drops his bags by the door, and then races for the stairs like it’s been thirteen years since he’s seen Lan Zhan instead of like thirteen days. “Night!” he whisper-shouts over his shoulder.

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes and locks the door behind him. He leans against the wall to tug the laces of his sneakers loose and tosses them toward the shoe rack. Shouldering Wei Ying’s bags with his own he deposits all of them inside the big French armoire that functions as an entry-way closet.

Reflexively, he checks in on the rabbits on his way through the living room. They’re fast asleep in their expansive two-story hutch that sprawls half the length of the wall. Muttering derisively about his brother’s taste in men, Jiang Cheng snags a blanket off the back of the sofa and steps through the narrow doorway into the den.

Wen Qing is fast asleep at her desk, face buried in her folded arms. She’s been doing this ever since she resumed her classes.

Shaking his head, Jiang Cheng leans over her laptop to save all her work, then closes it so it’ll have some battery life left in the morning. He drapes the blanket over her slumped shoulders carefully.

“I’m home,” he tells her quietly. She doesn’t wake up, but he didn’t mean for her to.

Wei Ying is greeted the next morning by a screech. A-Yuan flings himself away from the breakfast table to attach himself to Wei Ying’s leg.

“You’re back!”

“I’m back!” Wei Ying says, hauling the kid up into his arms. “And I brought you so many souvenirs from New York!”

There are mouth-shaped bruises on Wei Ying’s neck, because of course there are. Jiang Cheng prays to god for any shred of fucking patience and pointedly doesn’t look at him or Lan Zhan. How fucking dare they be like that right in front of his eggs.

When they’ve eaten, Granny says, “Everyone has a big surprise for you two. They hurried to get it done before you got home. A-Ning, go find your sister. Let’s show them.”

They’re shuffled outside, through the conservatory and down the back steps, and Jiang Cheng sees it a half-second before Wei Ying does. He grins, full and wide, and hears his brother gasp.

“You finished the dock!” Wei Ying yells. “It looks amazing!”

He goes running down the hill with Wen Ning and A-Yuan like a summer storm composed of loud, delighted noises and waving limbs. Lan Zhan follows slowly with Granny hanging onto his arm. Jiang Cheng watches after them, reaching into the corners of his chest for the pain that always comes hand-in-hand with moments of impossible joy like this, but he can’t seem to find it.

“The contractor said he would give us an estimate on a pavilion,” Wen Qing’s voice says from behind him.

Jiang Cheng turns to find her standing on the porch, leaning against the door, her hair still messy from sleep. She’s holding the blanket around her shoulders where he left it. Her eyes are reaching for him.

He’s braver than he was when he left.

“That’s a pretty permanent fixture,” Jiang Cheng says, heart beating wildly. “You sure you’re invested in something like that?”

She sighs in that way that means she’s laughing and comes down the steps to join the rest of her family by the water.

When the pavilion is finished, they have a wedding there.

It’s a small ceremony. The Lans are invited, of course, along with Jin Zixuan’s half-brother and a scattering of close friends, like Mianmian and Nie Huaisang. A-Yuan is the ring-bearer, and when he’s successfully delivered the rings to the grooms, he lifts his arms in a bid to be held.

Laughingly, Wei Ying scoops him up. His hair is loose and his eyes are bright, and Lan Zhan is looking at him the way he’s always looking at him, like he would follow him absolutely anywhere.

Just this once, Jiang Cheng will allow it.

The daylight is fading fast, and the night is going to be perfect and clear. Yanli and Wen Ning are spinning each other around in time to the music, totally out of step with everyone else and laughing brightly. Granny is taking a fussy A-Ling back up to the villa to put him to bed in the nursery that every single one of them spent way too much time and energy on, leaving Jin Zixuan free to nurse a glass of sparkling grape juice and stare judgmentally at his half-brother for flirting with Lan Huan. Jiang Cheng might join him for some judgmental staring, actually.

Wei Ying and Lan Zhan are slow-dancing with a giggling A-Yuan held between them. The water rocks gently against the posts, crowded with the lily pads and lotus flowers that Jin Zixuan carefully maintains for A-Li. Wen Qing crosses the dock to Jiang Cheng, and her hand slips easily into his.

And none of it hurts. It isn’t supposed to.

Their house waited empty for a long, long time, but they’re all finally home.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #yunmeng shuangjie #wangxian #jiang cheng #wei ying #wen qing #lan zhan #jiang yanli #my writing #mdzs fic #the ship sways

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rosethornewrites · 3 years

Text

Fic: a grain of millet drifting, ch. 1

Relationship: Niè Huáisāng & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn

Characters: Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Original Characters, Nie Huaisang

Additional Tags: Assassination Attempt(s), Introspection, Regret, Travel, Post-Canon, POV Third Person, POV Wei WuXian

Summary: Wei Wuxian wanders after parting from Lan Wangji, looking to understand the changes in the world since his death, seeking to understand his place in it. He doesn't realize he's being watched. Frankencanon, so this has a liberal mixture of CQL and MDZS.

Notes: See end.

AO3 link

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Wei Wuxian hadn’t lied to Lan Zhan after their brief confrontation with Nie Huaisang in Cloud Recesses, not exactly.

Knowing why he’d been brought back, whether somehow his old friend had chosen him specifically for his own reasons, or if that had been entirely Mo Xuanyu’s call, wouldn’t change anything.

And part of him didn’t want confirmation of how much Nie Huaisang had meddled with along the way.

So much had been broken, so many people lost, and a part of him wanted to believe the façade that the indolent Nie Huaisang he had known during their days in the Cloud Recesses still existed.

But once he’d left Lan Zhan and set off on his travels with Little Apple, once he started getting used to being alive again, to having even the tiny wisp of a jindan, barely beyond zhuji, that Mo Xuanyu had gifted him, something he could build on, something other than the gaping hole that had ultimately consumed him, he’d had to face some truths.

He had no family, no home. He didn’t know if Jiang Cheng would ever want anything to do with him, and he wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t. As much as he would always love Lotus Pier, he didn’t know that it had ever really been his home.

In some ways, his leaving had been inevitable. Despite being head disciple, he’d never been welcome. And the fall of Lotus Pier would forever be his fault, the ghosts of his own doing. He’d never regret protecting Mianmian and Lan Zhan, but he would always regret the massacre that had followed.

Even if he’d technically been absolved of the death of Jin Zixuan and the bloodbath of Nightless City and shijie’s death, his actions had still led to them.

Wei Wuxian spent long, sleepless nights under the stars and listening to Little Apple snore outrageously coming to the understanding that he’d left the Burial Mounds with his sanity shredded. The war and continued use of resentful energy without a jindan had only worsened it. He’d raised the dead, the ancestors of their enemy, defiling their bodies to win the war, and he’d earned a dark and deviant reputation in doing so.

After the war, he’d taken to drinking to dull it all, and doing so had destabilized his mind further. He was sensitive about his inability to cultivate, but couldn’t explain why. Surrounded by people who wanted him to do what he could not, he had spiraled.

Really, by the time he’d saved the Dafan Wen temporarily from their fate and gone back to attempt to live in the Burial Mounds, he’d been hanging by a thread. Wen Qing had bullied him into taking care of himself, for the most part, but he’d spent more days than he could count in the Demon Slaughtering Cave capable of little more than opening his eyes, what little energy he had dedicated to keeping the Seal under control.

He remembered very little past Jiang Yanli’s death and waking up in the Burial Mounds with the remnants of the Wen who knew death was coming. The seal wanted more, another Nightless City. And he’d known he could absolutely destroy the Jianghu—but that the Seal wanted it gave him enough pause that he knew he needed to destroy it and end it all.

He’d managed to find a way, but the Siege happened just as he was ready. What little sanity he had left went toward an attempt to hide A-Yuan—maybe the one good thing he had managed. And then, as the aunties and uncles and popo were massacred around him, he could only focus on destroying the seal.

Dying in the way that he had, ripped to shreds by corpses, had been agonizing, though the benefit of Jiang Cheng stabbing him had meant he’d died faster. He didn’t know if his shidi had meant it to be a kindness, but ultimately it had lessened his suffering before he died. It was likely a better death than anyone else would have given him.

But Jin Guangyao had been right: even before he’d absconded with the Wen remnants, his actions during the war, his temper and frayed sanity, his rages, his desecration of the dead… All of it had painted a target on him.

No, he’d painted it on himself with blood.

Wei Wuxian had come back in a body not tainted by the resentful energy that had burrowed its way into his bones before his death, despite it being his old one free of scars and birth marks, his sanity somehow restored, and was able to see his own self-destruction and how he had made that the only path he could walk through his own trauma-fueled hubris.

Maybe those years dead had done something to heal whatever damage he had inflicted on his own soul, as well. He remembered nothing of that time, and waking up in a body had been like opening his eyes after a long sleep. He’d known he’d been dead, had known time had passed, though not how much at first. Everything that had occurred leading to his death felt so immediate, particularly shijie’s death and the knowledge he’d left A-Yuan hiding but didn’t know if he’d survived.

The relief he felt that he had at least saved one person couldn’t be quantified.

Part of the journey was trying to find where he fit into the world now, but most of it was reflection and coming to terms with the reality that now existed.

He’d steered away from larger cities, opting to travel smaller roads to villages off the beaten path. Many, it seemed, had problems with restless spirits and the like—the occasional yao, even. He took care of what he could, and drafted letters to Lan Zhan when it was something that required more than he was currently capable of.

Perhaps that was something he’d learned—to rely on others and not try to fix everything himself. He could probably handle it all, but there were costs of using resentful energy too much, and in this life he didn’t particularly want to pay them.

So he communicated with the odd hungry ghost, used talismans to take down roaming fierce corpses, and handled the smaller yao that he could handle with the jindan he had, using these night hunts to help develop it further, hoping one day he could retrieve Suibian from Jiang Cheng and be able to wield the blade again—assuming his once-brother would let him have the sword.

Everything beyond, that would require more spiritual energy than he had or more resentful energy than he was comfortable using, he sent to Lan Zhan so the local cultivation sect could be alerted. He dared not send them a letter himself; people still had strong feelings about the return of the Yiling Patriarch, and it was just as likely he’d be blamed for the problem as anything.

The rural route he took left him able to travel in anonymity as a rogue cultivator, offering essentially any name but his own. Thanks to the ugly Yiling Patriarch talismans, the common folk didn’t know what he looked like. Most often, he went by Wei Yuandao, reminded of Mianmian’s happiness at seeing him when he did, that there were people in the world who didn’t hate or fear him. The villagers didn’t know him, were grateful for his help, whether in setting a spirit to rest or helping with odd jobs in exchange for a meal and a place to sleep by a hearth.

Much of the time, though, he slept beneath a blanket of stars.

One night like that, he heard the sounds of a scuffle and rushed to see what was going on. He expected to need to fight off a bandit, but instead he found a man in Nie colors running through a man dressed head to toe in black, face masked.

As he stood gaping, the Nie disciple bowed to him.

“Wei-gongzi.”

That confirmed a suspicion, and the logic of the situation ran through his mind at the speed of light. The courtesy, the Nie colors, what was clearly a would-be assassin’s body at his feet. Finally, Wei Wuxian sighed.

“How many assassins?”

The young man smiled.

“Five in as many weeks. You are as smart as Nie-zongzhu said.”

Wei Wuxian snorted at that.

“Not if I didn’t realize assassins were being sent after me. I’m guessing Nie-xiong knew they’d be hired and sent you to protect me in secret?”

He’d honestly thought he was being left alone by the cultivation world, especially since he wasn’t causing any trouble. How very naïve.

The man nodded curtly, then bent to rifle through the corpse’s clothing, looking for clues and stripping it of valuables, every bit a Nie.

“He wanted you to be able to travel without worry.”

Ah, Nie-xiong…

Perhaps Nie Huaisang was used to working from the shadows and had an agenda, or perhaps he truly just wanted Wei Wuxian to be undisturbed. Whatever his reasons for the secrecy, with this that ship had sailed.

But Wei Wuxian had no idea why Nie Huaisang would bother, not after he threatened him at the Cloud Recesses. Implied threat, but still—he’d expected that would burn a bridge. Not… this.

“I suppose I’m overdue for a visit to the Unclean Realm,” he said after thinking it over. “You may as well travel with me openly, unless Nie-xiong would prefer you watch over me in secret?”

Despite the protection he’d sent, Wei Wuxian didn’t know if he wanted the Nie clan officially associated with the Yiling Patriarch.

“Sect Leader was not specific about this eventuality. Traveling together openly may deter assassins, though it is easier to catch them off guard if they believe you unprotected.”

Ah, so Nie Huaisang didn’t care. Wei Wuxian waved off the concern. Now that he knew the threat, it was easily dealt with.

“I can set talisman traps around the campsite. Probably should have done that to begin with.”

But he’d been trying to have faith in the cultivation world, he didn’t say. Once again, misplaced faith and he should’ve known better.

“At least that way you can get real sleep as we travel to meet with Nie-zongzhu.”

They were a week of travel from the Unclean Realm, and he supposed he’d get answers to questions he hadn’t known he had then.

He headed back to his campsite, happy to see his Nie protector was following, and set a gourd of water near the fire to heat and pulled out some tea.

“In the meantime, we can talk about these assassins, eh? We’ll bury the body in the morning.”

It’d been over a decade since he’d last dug a grave, and it wasn’t to bury a body, but he was sure he could manage with the Nie’s help.

----------

Zhuji is the foundation building stage of cultivation, the stage before forming the jindan/golden core. Basically, Wei Wuxian is saying Mo Xuanyu was barely into the stage of forming a golden core, so it’s barely a wisp, but is still something that has the foundations built for him.

This fic was… unexpected. I wanted to write something for Nie Huaisang’s birthday, kind of a reconciliation between him and Wei Wuxian, and this happened. It will likely be no more than three chapters.

The title is a reference to a translation of a Su Shi poem, “First Ode on the Red Cliffs,” which was written after his first exile (he was exiled twice, both times for his poetry), while he wandered. There are several translations floating around, but I liked the wording of this one.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #chen qing ling #cql #mdzs #wei wuxian #wei ying #nie huaisang #untamed fanfiction #untamed fanfic #untamed fic #cql fanfic #cql fanfiction #cql fic #mdzs fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #mdzs fic #my fanfiction

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wreathedinscales · 3 years

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"Wangji."

Golden eyes open in catlike slits. Were it not for his size, his jade white scales would be lost under the sleeping rabbits snuggled around him. Here, nestled in his hoard, Lan Xichen's brother is his most content, and Lan Xichen hates to interrupt him.

But Uncle is right. This conversation has to happen today. So Lan Xichen approaches with a peaceable smile on his face, letting his limbs elongate into a mirror image of the dragon, almost identical to the legendary Lan An: pale antlers sprouting like small trees from a sky blue mane that stretches along his spine to a feather-soft fur tail. The noticeable difference is Lan Xichen has whiskers, two flowing tendrils on the sides of his snout. Wangji is not yet old enough to grow his.

"A disciple is being punished for insulting your breeding," Lan Xichen rumbles, putting one paw over the other. "This is the fifth proposal you have refused this week, Wangji. The elders are getting worried you will never accept a harness."

Slowly, Wangji blinks his eyes all the way open. "Didn't like them."

Lan Xichen tries not to laugh at the childish petulance in his voice. "Why not?"

Wangji doesn't answer.

A black rabbit, the only one in the bunch, hops onto his snout. Wangji looks especially pleased.

...ah.

"Wangji," Lan Xichen says cautiously, "do you have someone specific in mind?"

Wangji looks back at him.

Lan Xichen sighs. "You know I only want you to be happy. But you must know that is impossible."

"I would not be the first Lan to be without a harness."

Lan Xichen opens his mouth, then closes it, lets his tension speak for him. While they are descended from the skies, the Lan bloodline has been diluted. They are not the divine creatures of old. Human riders, empathetic bonds, allow them to keep their human hearts. What Wangji is suggesting is unfathomable to his family: relinquishing balance, an existence driven completely by instinct. Everything a Lan abhors.

Wangji averts his eyes. But he does not back down.

Lan Xichen sighs. In a rare moment, his agitation becomes apparent in the mist coiling from his jaws. He nudges his brother's snout and leaves the back hill.

The Burial Mounds seethe at Lan Xichen's approach. Lan Xichen resists the urge to seethe back. He's ridden the sword instead of scale, thinking perhaps Wei Wuxian will be more amenable to a human's approach. Most people are, except Nie Mingjue, but Mingjue has always been different. Or maybe Lan Xichen is biased.

Nevertheless, his rider has no knowledge of Lan Xichen's visit. Uncle does not even know; his nephew only told him he was going to look elsewhere for candidates for Wangji. Which is not a lie.

The wards ripple red. Lan Xichen sends a harmless breath of energy, the equivalent of knocking politely on a door. Then he waits, taking in the...scenery.

He tries to be positive. Before the war and heresy, Wei Wuxian showed himself to be clever and righteous. He had been an enormous help in the war, despite his methods. Something in him has broken Wangji's silence, and Wangji is a Lan: he does not love lightly.

Wei Wuxian is also stubborn, rash, and practices unorthodoxy. Also, he is harboring Wens in the Burial Mounds. Lan Xichen can't help thinking he's utterly unworthy of Wangji.

Lan Xichen takes a deep breath, then grimaces. The Burial Mounds is choked with resentful death and rotting flesh. But he will stick to his purpose.

"Sect Leader Lan."

Wei Wuxian is a skeleton in worn clothes, twirling his dizi with deliberate carelessness. His smile is sharp and cautious.

"Has Lan Zhan finally given up?" he asks.

Lan Xichen smiles back. "On the contrary. I wish to speak with you, Young Master Wei, if you have a moment."

Wei Wuxian tilts his head. "You've never been here. Would you like a tour while we talk?"

"I'm afraid it is a sensitive subject."

Wei Wuxian's fingers twitch around Chenqing.

"Young Master Wei," Lan Xichen says, "I mean you and your charges no harm." After a moment's consideration, he says, "It is about Wangji."

Wei Wuxian starts. Suddenly, he is speaking rapidly: "Is he alright? Did something happen?"

"May we talk?" Lan Xichen repeats.

Wei Wuxian's lips purse. He waves his hand, and the barrier falls.

"Follow me."

This is not an army.

This is an old woman patting the Ghost General's head as he helps her lift a bag of radishes. This is an old man crowing about his latest attempt at wine. This is a young child, a child, running to wrap around Wei Wuxian's leg.

The crowd turns and falls quiet. Lan Xichen cannot attempt to hide his antlers or tail, much less his pristine clothes. He nods and smiles as kindly as he can, bidding a polite greeting.

Wen Qing emerges from the throng. She salutes stiffly. "Sect Leader Lan."

Wei Wuxian swings the child into his arms. "A-Yuan, go back to Granny."

A-Yuan instead grins at Lan Xichen and yells, "Rich-gege!"

Wei Wuxian laughs. "No, no, this is his big brother. He came to talk." He's looking at Wen Qing as he says this. "We won't be long."

Wen Qing's eyes flick between them. At length, she holds out a hand and says, "A-Yuan."

A-Yuan pouts but allows Wei Wuxian to put him down. "Bye, Big Brother!"

Lan Xichen waves. "Wonderful to meet you, A-Yuan."

Wei Wuxian resumes walking with more urgency in his step. Beyond the quaint settlement is a cave. Wei Wuxian throws a few talismans around the entrance and demands without preamble, "What's wrong with Lan Zhan?"

Lan Xichen explains the situation despite his spinning thoughts. A-Yuan's face has been burned there, igniting a wildfire that makes his tail twitch like a hatchling's. Somehow he manages to sound steady throughout.

"The consequences," he adds, "are not well-known."

Wei Wuxian has somehow grown more pale. "Then why have you told me?" He attempts to smirk. "Is it because you know I have nobody to tell?"

Lan Xichen keeps his smile fixed to his face. "I tell you because Wangji will take no one but you."

For some reason this surprises Wei Wuxian. For some reason, he cries, "But Lan Zhan hates me!"

Lan Xichen stares.

And stares.

Wei Wuxian's nose twitches. "Don't look at me like that. You and Lan Zhan are too much alike."

It's been years since anyone's said that about Lan Xichen and his brother. But if that were true, Wei Wuxian wouldn't be gaping like a dead chicken.

"How..." Lan Xichen pauses and attempts to word this properly. In the end, he can only say, "Please explain."

Wei Wuxian blinks. "I mean, he's made his opinion about my cultivation clear. He keeps telling me to come back to Gusu and everything!"

"...I see."

This is an utter lie. Lan Xichen has not outright lied in years.

Wei Wuxian shakes his head. "Besides, what would I do as a rider? I..." he swallows. For a moment, his expression darkens. "No. It's impossible."

Lan Xichen looks at him. Looks around the cave. Thinks of the child outside. He makes the executive decision to open his rider-bond and say, I need help.

While Mingjue implodes in his skull, Lan Xichen says, "I believe there has been a slight misunderstanding."

Wei Wuxian raises an eyebrow. "You think?"

"...several misunderstandings."

Wei Wuxian scoffs and crosses his arms. "So what would you have me do? I'm not saying I believe you about Lan Zhan's feelings," spirits above, he can't be serious, "but am I supposed to write him a letter? I'm not going to Gusu, if I haven't made that clear."

Lan Xichen answers Mingjue's barrage of questions while replying, "What would be your decision?"

"What? Sect Leader Lan, I can't possibly accept!" Lan Xichen's stomach drops. "The cultivation world will skin him alive, for one! And I can't leave the Wens alone!"

"Disregarding all of that," Lan Xichen says, "What would be your answer?"

Wei Wuxian's brow furrows. "Disre..." He laughs. "Forgive me, Sect Leader Lan, but did you hit your head on your way here?"

"Wei Wuxian."

The cave vibrates. Shadows curl around Wei Wuxian, ready to defend.

Lan Xichen closes his eyes until he can smile again. "If none of that existed. Would you accept?"

Wei Wuxian falters. The shadows disperse, leaving him small and sad. It reminds Lan Xichen painfully of how young he is despite his deeds.

"Lan Zhan is too good," Wei Wuxian murmurs, "Too good." He huffs with a pained smile. "If the world was magically better, and he asked me, I could never say no."

Mingjue, now informed of the situation, has Baxia-sharp focus. The cutting edges are comforting.

"Young Master Wei," Lan Xichen says, "I will return soon."

Nie Mingjue despises the Wens. He has made that abundantly clear. But he is also a good man. A man who will not, in good conscience, look at the people in the Burial Mounds and stand aside.

A baffled Wei Wuxian is roped into giving that tour.

Lan Xichen thinks he owes Jiang Wanyin an apology. The man had tried so hard to protect his brother, but no one had helped him, not even Wei Wuxian.

Afterwards, the three of them stand in the cave and Nie Mingjue considers Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian considers him in turn, shoulders slightly curled, ready to defend himself and the Wens.

The moment Lan Xichen pictures him being spoiled by his brother is when he knows the decision is made.

"Alright," Mingjue bellows, "let's gather the sects."

Wei Wuxian's says, "Huh?"

Since Wei Wuxian is so leery about Gusu, the conference takes place in Qinghe. Wangji is the first to arrive, sailing on the wind.

Wei Wuxian watches him land in open awe. No, he's smitten. Oh dear.

"Wei Ying" is of course the first thing Wangji says with human lips.

"Lan Zhan," Wei Wuxian replies, "Your brother said some weird things."

Wangji's pupils turn to slits. "Brother?"

Lan Xichen puts his hands behind his back. "You have a preference."

Wangji's expression doesn't change, but he can't hide his sorrow from Lan Xichen. "He has already refused."

"Eh?" Wei Wuxian cries, "What do you mean?"

Wangji looks like a scolded hatchling and Lan Xichen's talons twitch in his fingers. "You will not come to Gusu."

"Wh...you...what?"

Nie Mingjue is very amused. Lan Xichen internally chides him. It does not work.

"I thought you were going to punish me!" Wei Wuxian says.

Wangji's eyes widen. "Would never punish Wei Ying."

"But! You don't like me?"

Nie Mingjue snorts.

Wangji sends him a glare before responding. "I never said that." His ears turn red. "Like Wei Ying."

Wei Wuxian is red as well, only it's his entire face. "Lan Zhan?"

Wangji's tail flicks. "I do. I...I want." His throat bobs. "I want your harness."

Wei Wuxian chokes. "That...that sounds...why did you say it like that? No, just." He hides his head in his hands. "Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan."

Wangji averts his eyes. "But you have refused me. Brother had no right to bother you."

"Bother? I? No!" Wei Wuxian groans. "Lan Zhan, you are the best person in the world. Who wouldn't like you?"

Silence. Wangji's mouth hangs open. It's hilarious and Lan Xichen refuses to laugh. In his mind, Mingjue cackles for him.

"Okay," Wei Wuxian says, slightly muffled by his fingers, "Okay. Stop. Back up." He drops his hands and points to Wangji. "You, Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji, Hanguang-Jun." Points to himself. "Wants me to be your rider. Because you like me."

Wangji's ears are almost purple. "Mn." Quieter, he adds, "Very much."

Wei Wuxian gapes at him. "Holy fuck."

He runs into Wangji's arms.

"Holy fuck!" he cries again, "Lan Zhan! Holy fuck!"

Wangji's eyes are shining. "Mn."

Wei Wuxian buries his face in his shoulder. "Maybe one day, when all this dies down, we can..."

He pulls back with an aggrieved noise. "No. No, wait. I...ah, Lan Zhan, don't look like that! It's just. There's...it's just that...ah, hell."

He grasps Wangji's wrists. Wangji reciprocates.

Wangji pales.

Says, "Wei Ying."

Wei Wuxian yanks his face towards him and whispers rapidly in his ear. Lan Xichen's senses can pick it up despite his best efforts at giving them privacy: "So you see, Lan Zhan, it can't work, I'm sorry, but it—"

And Lan Xichen could have gone his whole life without knowing what his brother looks like shoving his tongue down someone's throat.

"Wangji."

Golden eyes open in catlike slits.

Lan Xichen smiles. "A-Yao just gave me the news. Not even Jin Guangshan could dispute what's in front of him. When he wakes, please tell Young Master Wei that the Wens may stay in Gusu."

It's been weeks of sleepless nights and restraint. Wei Wuxian hadn't wanted the Wens anywhere near the conference, but "Granny" and "Uncle Four" convinced him to let at least them, Wen Qing and Wen Qionglin to go. In the meantime, the Wens were given space in the Unclean Realm under Nie Mingjue's watch.

Wangji, for reasons undisclosed to even Lan Xichen, has stopped saying anything against Wei Wuxian's cultivation. He still does not seem pleased with it, but when asked, he expounds on Wei Wuxian's virtue and sense of justice until the other person is forced to give up asking him.

For his part, Wei Wuxian puts on the Yiling Patriarch ferocity until Lan Xichen asks about A-Yuan. At first, Wei Wuxian had been visibly thrown by the question. Then he started talking like a proud father. When he mentioned how smart A-Yuan is for a toddler, many cultivators shifted in their seats.

A-Yuan did make a brief appearance in the proceedings, with Wei Wuxian and the gathered Wens watching like hawks and Wangji in scales. A-Yuan had screamed at the sight of the Jins.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Jiang Wanyin is quick to join Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. Well, Wei Wuxian is surprised, but Lan Xichen has lost his trust in Wei Wuxian's basic emotional awareness.

So it comes to this: Wei Wuxian sleeping soundly, holding Wangji's tail with all four limbs, A-Yuan snuggled in Wangji's mane. Wangji has promised Wei Wuxian a flight. Lan Xichen wonders at Wei Wuxian's crying as he listened. Soon, they will be among Wangji's hoard of rabbits.

("He hoards what? But he didn't have any when I gave him those two!"

"...excuse me?")

Wangji is not just content. He is happy. Another smile for Lan Xichen's own hoard.

"I will."

#wangxian #mdzs #writing #dragonji

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songofclarity · 3 years

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Since there is no official height for WRH, how tall do you think he is? imo I'm 90% sure that NMJ is taller and being precise he's either a single cm shorter or taller than LXC. Also build-wise, do you think he's more bulky or slim?

So I just found out that NMJ is the tallest character in mdzs (191 cm) and I'm wondering do we know how tall WRH is? What if he's actually shorter than NMJ? Would NMJ tower over him all scowling and glaring and WRH would be like "how dare you look down on me like this? *Also why is this turning me on?* "

Hello to the same Anon because I reply too slow or to two different Anons who are on the same wavelength!

Nie MingJue is the tallest character in the series and there is absolutely no way I'm going to headcanon away his crown! Nie MingJue is 191 cm and everyone can look up to him, as they should~ And that includes Wen RuoHan!

This might be a boring answer, but I don’t think Wen RuoHan cares about height. I don’t think Nie MingJue being taller, whether by 1 cm or 10 cm, would bother him. There is a confidence about Wen RuoHan in what he says and does and doesn’t do that shows, to me, someone who is actually well adjusted to his body, his position, and his power.

Looking back at the saber incident, it’s important to note that Wen RuoHan’s beef wasn’t because Sect Leader Nie’s saber was sharper or bigger or better, his beef was because Sect Leader Nie was (reportedly) being an asshole about it. It was Sect Leader Nie (reportedly) turning it into a competition when it wasn’t one. Wen RuoHan was perfectly at peace with the world on his own, and never asked a question comparing his saber with others. Is his own saber not a fine saber? The answer is yes, it’s quite fine. And Nie MingJue in all his tall glory is also quite fine, and I think Wen RuoHan could appreciate Nie MingJue in multiple ways without having to feel intimidated or challenged by him.

Confidence is key!

Going on a tangent for a second, I like to consider the idea that Nie MingJue doesn't exactly feel the whole extent of his height. His fiery temperament, exacerbated by the saber spirit and a toxic sworn brotherhood arrangement, always gets the focus over his height, which is really only mentioned by Wei WuXian at the start of empathy but is never used to describe Nie MingJue looking down on people, physically or mentally. When Nie MingJue runs into the frightened woman and child in Hejian, he reigns in his aggression, but he's still very much towering over them.

We know that Nie MingJue was a teenager and old enough to go on night hunts when his father was injured, so I imagine him being 16 back then. Boys, on a whole, start puberty later than girls (so closer to 13) and might not hit their peak until as late as 20. So let's say Nie MingJue hadn't reached peak 191 cm yet and his father was still taller than him when bed bound. Then his father died, and in the ensuing years Nie MingJue shot up like a tree, but that doesn’t change how his father will ALWAYS be taller than him. (I headcanon both Nie brothers take more after their respective mothers’ side of the family in appearance and height than they do from their father’s. Nie MingJue is tall even amongst his uncles at 191 cm, Nie HuaiSang is short at 172 cm, and Sect Leader Nie was somewhere in between.)

I also imagine the situation around his father's death, how those six months showed the worst part of the Qinghe Nie saber cultivation and his father at his most monstrous, would have made Nie MingJue feel very small and helpless as a kid. It's no surprise he loathes and regrets that death the most into his adulthood. It's no surprise that once he steps into an adult role, he's always working and trying harder than everyone else to protect the peace and mitigate danger.

Nie MingJue's big dick energy comes from the heart. Combined with his height, he’s the biggest man around!

But I don't think Wen RuoHan is significantly shorter than Nie MingJue. I headcanon him being 185 cm at the shortest. That makes him shorter than Nie MingJue at 191 cm and Lan XiChen at 188 cm, but it’s the same height as Jiang Cheng. For comparison, Wen Ning is 183 cm vs Wen Yuan is 172 cm. Wen Yuan experienced some serious food difficulties during his early child (from about age 2 to 5) that could have negatively effected his growth, so he is likely an outlier. Wen Chao isn't given a height and there's no particular reference to him being short or tall, not even when Wei WuXian holds him hostage in the cave, so I imagine he's not too far off from Wei WuXian, who is 186 cm. So we're reasonably looking somewhere in the 180s cm for Wen RuoHan.

If Wen RuoHan doesn’t have to ask Nie MingJue to lean down to get what he wants and can just take it, even if he has to go up on his toes, height really is no issue~

Because the fun part about Wen RuoHan is that I do not think a taller person is going to phase him. At one point the world stands tall against him and he flexes quite well on his status where he doesn't even think he needs to lift a finger to end the Sunshot Campaign. This is a man who will slightly tilt up his chin, without even thinking about it, so he ends up looking down on the towering Nie MingJue.

I imagine the effect is quite alluring, but it would also be like being faced down by a predator and Nie MingJue isn’t used to being treated as prey~ Wen RuoHan is in for a fight if he wants to try taking him down though lol

As for Wen RuoHan’s build, I tend to go with in between bulky and slim. I think most of his strength comes from his spiritual energy. He's not packing the dreamy abs Nie MingJue has hiding under his robes that got even Wei WuXian drooling. But to get to such high cultivation, Wen RuoHan had to have done a lot of physical training, which I picture makes him muscular, but still not bulky. And he has enough muscle that he's not particularly slim, either, although I imagine him having quite graceful hands and a regal poise that give the impression of slender elegance. His calm and quiet confidence belies his strength, and the energy he gives off gives the impression that he’s the biggest man in the room. Sometimes impression really is everything.

So in one way or another, Wen RuoHan and Nie MingJue might each think the other is bigger or taller than him, and neither one is fazed by it, and I just think that’s neat!

#anon #asked from above #wen ruohan #nie mingjue #ruojue #mdzs thoughts

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boxoftheskyking · 4 years

Text

Something Good, Part Eleven

Things I don’t know about include medicine and plants. Thanks Google.

Sorry to Lan Qiren’s reputation I guess I need him to be a dick.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten

---

After morning lessons, the children are taken to the infirmary. They file in, a little row kneeling and a row standing in a half-circle around the bench where Wen Qing stands, holding onto a mortar and pestle like her life depends on it. From his position in the corner, Wei Wuxian gives her a bright encouraging smile. Lan Wangji sweeps in and joins Wen Qing at the front, giving the children his typical not-smile—it strikes Wei Wuxian suddenly that this particular warmth in his face, a loosening of tension around his eyes, maybe, his mouth still neutral but not so set, is something that only comes out around the children. Lan Wangji, he’s starting to realize, exists in the space between things. Not warm, not really, but not entirely cold either.

Wei Wuxian’s good mood is slightly spoiled by the arrival of Lan Qiren. After acknowledging the respectful bows of greeting he remains in the doorway and gestures to Wen Qing.

“Disciples,” Lan Wangi says, standing up a bit straighter, if that’s possible. “Lady Wen is a very accomplished doctor, and she is going to give you all a lesson today. Let us thank her.”

“Thank you, Lady Wen,” the children chorus.

Wen Qing inclines her head. “Today I am going to show you a simple dressing, which helps to heal a cut or scrape. The first thing we do is to clean the wound with fresh water.”

She’s clearly uncomfortable with all of the attention focused on her, but she patiently talks the children through chopping herbs and measuring out oils, which type of cloth is best for binding. She lets them each come up to smell the ingredients separately and the concoction together, looking a bit thrown at their starry-eyed adoration with every question. The children are very well behaved—Wei Wuxian only has to tap the Trio of Terror on the shoulder a few times and raise his eyebrows before they stop fidgeting.

“Now I can show you how to apply the dressing,” Wen Qing says. She turns to Lan Wangji and blushes, looking between him and Lan Qiren awkwardly.

“Here, Lady Wen!” Wei Wuxian pipes up. “I volunteer to be your patient!”

He winds his way around the kids and squeezes in between her and Lan Wangji, rolling up his sleeve. Wen Qing picks up a small knife and the smaller children gasp.

“Wei-qianbei!” Lan Sizhui cries out, covering his eyes.

“Don’t worry, friends! Lady Wen is a very talented doctor and will fix me right up.”

Wen Qing sets the knife against his forearm, but before she can break the skin another hand closes gently around Wei Wuxian’s wrist, pulling him away.

“That is not necessary,” Lan Wangji rumbles, fingers warm and firm and circling Wei Wuxian’s forearm completely.

“It’s alright, Lan Wangji,” he says quietly. “Lady Wen has healed worse than a little cut.”

“It is not necessary,” he says again. He keeps a hold of Wei Wuxian’s arm and picks up a brush, dipping it lightly in ink and drawing a thin line across his skin. “There. That will do.”

“I don’t think—”

“A-Yuan is frightened,” Lan Wangji says quietly, not looking up from the drying ink for a long moment.

When his wits have regathered, Wei Wuxian pulls gently out of his grasp and turns a smile on the children. Lan Qiren is glowering from the doorway.

“We can imagine that this is a little cut. Nothing to worry about! Lady Wen, will you show us how to apply the dressing?”

It’s a bit silly; Wen Qing dabs around the ink with a cloth and ties the fragrant bundle around his arm.

“It feels better already!” he says, striking a strong pose to make the children laugh.

“Yes,” Wen Qing says, fussing with her ingredients. “So that’s how the medicine works. You can add other ingredients as well, if there is swelling or infection.”

The children look at her. She looks at Lan Qiren. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji look at each other.

“Thank you, Lady Wen,” Lan Wangji says, bowing graciously to her. The children mimic him.

Lan Qiren stays in the doorway, watching.

“Hanguang Jun!” Ouyan Zizhen calls out suddenly. “When are you and Lady Wen getting married?”

Little romantic.

“Very soon,” Lan Qiren says from the doorway.

The children buzz with excitement until Lan Qiren clears his throat, frightening them all back to attention. Wei Wuxian stands between the couple, very carefully looking at no one.

Unable to stand another second of silence, Wei Wuxian cries out, “Disciples! Should we show Lady Wen what we learned in the garden?”

There’s a great cheer, and when Lan Wangji gives a nod the children file out of the infirmary.

“Everyone check on your favorite plants and make sure there are no weeds!” Wei Wuxian calls after them.

“Here, let me take this off,” Wen Qing says, reaching for the dressing, but Wei Wuxian pulls back.

“Oh no!” he pouts. “This was a gift from the great Lady Wen. Lan Wangji, don’t let her take it away from me. After all, I may need it one day!”

Wen Qing rolls her eyes and starts out of the room, only to be stopped by Lan Qiren. Wei Wuxian tries to overhear, but Lan Wangji catches his arm again, gently. He reaches out and rubs his thumb over the smear of ink that peeks out from beneath the cloth.

“It would have been fine, Lan Wangji,” Wei Wuxian says softly. “I’ve had worse than a little cut from a friend.”

“I know.”

There’s nothing else to say, and in the silence Wen Qing’s voice carries through the room.

“—I don’t understand, Teacher.”

“Don’t worry, it will become easier as they get to know you. They respect you, and that is what matters. Between you and Lan Wangji, the junior disciples will have everything they need.”

“Uncle,” Lan Wangji says, moving away from Wei Wuxian. “I don’t understand your meaning.”

Lan Qiren waves a dismissive hand. “Certainly you do. After the wedding, when Lady Wen moves to Cloud Recesses permanently, she will take over caring for the children.”

Wei Wuxian digs his thumbnail into the wood of the table.

“Uncle,” Lan Wangji says again, stubbornly polite, “Lady Wen is an accomplished doctor. Surely her talents are more suited for the infirmary. There is no reason Wei Wuxian should not stay as caretaker.”

It looks very wrong for Lan Qiren’s glare to focus on Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian almost wants to dive between them, as if he could take the force of it like a lightning bolt to the chest.

“Wangji, we will be in a stronger negotiating position after the marriage. The Gusu Lan Sect has borne this shame long enough.”

He doesn’t wait for a reply. Wei Wuxian might almost think he’s been forgotten, but Lan Qiren casts him a brief disdainful glance on his way out the door. He digs his nail deeper into the table, then yanks his hand back as a splinter starts to draw blood.

“Come on, Master and Lady,” he says, aiming for cheerful. “The kids are excited.”

They reach the garden just as Lan Yixian hits Su Meiling in the back of the head with a clump of dirt. Before she can start yelping about it, Wei Wuxian rushes over to brush off her hair, waving the others around him with one hand.

“Here, here, come on. Let’s show Lady Wen and Hanguang Jun what we learned about the garden. Do you remember?”

“Yes, Wei-qianbei!” they crow.

I’m going to miss that, he thinks.

He lines them up in a scraggly, muddy row, silently wishing he could change them into their play clothes, and says, “You know the song, so sing when I direct you! Licorice first!”

He taps Wen Ning on the shoulder and sings quietly along with him.

“In a sandy bed in bright light Here is licorice, growing strong!”

Wei Wuxian taps Yao Hauling on the head, and she sings, “Soothes your stomach with one small bite!”

“Everybody!”

“Sun and rain we sing our song!”

Wei Wuxian spins along behind them, tapping heads between each line.

“In the shade with lots of water—”

“Here is ginseng, growing strong!”

“Helps revive a sleepy daughter.”

“Sun and rain we sing our song!”

“Winding up the poles in sunshine—”

“Lei gong teng is growing strong!”

“Fixes swelling—clever green vine!”

“Sun and rain we sing our song!”

“Here in shadow, where it’s soggy—”

“Pink rhodora growing strong!”

“Take when mountains make you groggy.”

“Sun and rain we sing our song!”

“Excellent, excellent!” Wei Wuxian shouts, tousling hair and pinching cheeks. Lan Wangji and Wen Qing clap, and Wen Qing leans over to give her brother a squeeze.

“I knew they couldn’t take your music away,” she murmurs to him, smiling over Wen Ning’s shoulder.

“I don’t get in trouble if someone else sings it,” he replies, tapping his nose.

“I am very impressed by your memorization,” Lan Wangji says. Lan Sizhui looks like he’s about to lift off the ground with pride. “And the medicine garden is very well-tended. You have all been very attentive to the plants and also to the rabbits on the back hill. The Lan sect and I thank you for your dedication.” He bows very formally, and the children bow in return, struggling to keep their grins under control.

“Now, my clever, muddy rascals,” Wei Wuxian says, “off to lunch! Go on, wash the dirt off your hands. It may be medicinal, but it tastes bad on rice. Go, go!”

“Dirt is not medicinal,” Wen Qing says as they run ahead of him.

“It’s a medicine garden, Wen Qing.” He winks at her. “Walk! Don’t run! Walk! Come on—”

“Wei Wuxian,” Lan Wangji says. “A word.”

It’s not a question, but it’s not a command either. Somewhere in between.

Wen Qing nods to them both and hurries off after the children.

“She’ll get the hang of it,” Wei Wuxian says. Stop. Shut up. “They’ll love her. So will you, of course. If you don’t already.” Shut. Up.

“Wei Wuxian,” Lan Wangji frowns, “about what Lan Qiren said.”

“Don’t worry about it. Never mind! Naturally, nothing lasts forever. Naturally!”

“Wei Wuxian—”

“Although I do agree with you, Wen Qing is wasted outside the infirmary. Not wasted, obviously! What do I know? Lan Qiren is so old fashioned. But! Above my pay grade, clearly. Actually, I don’t get paid—”

“Wei Wuxian—”

“Wei Ying. Please.” He swallows and looks down at his hands, picking at his bandage. “Once. Once more.”

“Wei Ying.”

He hates how it thrills him.

“You work hard. What you do—I can’t do what you do.”

“You sell yourself short, Second Master Lan.”

“Lan Zhan.” Wei Wuxian’s eyes snap up to meet his. He looks very much like he wants to break eye contact, but he doesn’t.

“Aiyah,” Wei Wuxian breathes.

“Only when the children aren’t around.”

“Obviously.”

Lan Wangji nods, turns, hesitates, and leaves.

“Aiyah.” Somehow, haltingly, Wei Wuxian smiles.

Part Twelve

#assorted writings #something good #the untamed #cql #mo dao zu shi #writing dumb little songs is one of the only things I can do quickly #so there you go

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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

Text

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 22/?

Drama AU [this is just an idea tho, no plot basically]: “Did you find a bitch in me?”

[JC-focus crackships galore baby! title is from a Marina Diamandis’s song (“Hermit the Frog) but that’s probably not important for the non-plot so... yeah]

“So... wait a minute.”

“Hit me.”

“I’m still confused.”

“About?”

“Wen Qing... why should I know about your ex’s exes?”

“Because he’s a bisexual menace and I don’t want him to ruin this for me.”

“Jiang Cheng is not going to sleep with me.”

“What do you know tho? He’s that powerful.”

“Babe, I’m a lesbian.”

“And he has dated everyone in our circle of friends and their significant others.”

“Big lesbian energy, you’re absolutely right.”

“Thank you. I taught him well.”

or the only au where there’s only drama and no plot and JC went from experimenting to actively turning people gay or straight just because.

[attn: in this au Jin GuangShan is not, I repeat, not a bitch and did not, in fact, have other kids aside from Jin ZiXuan bc I say so. don’t make me complicate this non-existent plot more, please]

[under the cut for more!]

ok. got it. JC knows he’s no saint. hell, he doesn’t even qualify as a decent human being, alright. he’s that socially abominable. but things have escalated to a point where he doesn’t even know what to do. maybe become a hermit, lock his dick and call it a day. yeah, that should do the trick. because he really doesn’t know when it all started... no. that’s a lie. total bullshit. it was Nie HuaiSang.

so, SO, he may have been 16. sweet bush child with no future nor name. a great big sister, a stupid big bro, an overachieving mother, a distant father, the usual. save for fucking Nie HuaiSang and his stash of porn. and JC was straight. and he just wanted to check if the link his high school friend sent him was a jumpscare or not. he closed the tab right after the first moan echoed in his room late at night, he forgot to put the jack in and his earphones were possibly all the way back in his backpack on the kitchen table. fuck his life. and also fuck HuaiSang for being into weirdly sensual artsy porn on top of that. fuck his life. fuck the replay button too.

coincidentally, HuaiSang was his first kiss, first head, first everything only one year later and JC still talks to the jerk to an extent, but not because he wants to, okay? they were experimenting, but JC was still straight. he wanted to do good on his first actual relationship with a woman, whatever that meant for him at the time. HuaiSang was okay with that, the lying bastard. JC may or may not have grown fond of him by the time their graduation came, but they never got around to talk about it because they were stupid and young.

also, HuaiSang’s brother had caught them once and JC had known there and then why his non-boyfriend had decided to cut things loose afterwards. that jock was scary as fuck.

then. THEN. university came and Wen Qing was the one reminding JC he was still very much as straight and unbendable as he could get. it took him three years to not yell at her in frustration and ask her out: the sexual tension between them fueled by rivalry over good grades and the scholarship program they both wanted to have access to for their masters.

she had been the one asking him out. JC was lying about having the balls to do it, obviously. the fact that she also discovered to be a lesbian while being with him could have burned less, all things considered, but JC knew he had made love to her and that was enough for him. letting her go had been the right thing to do and they still talk everyday and she loves his nephew and everything is fine.

JC is FINE.

it only took him the two remaining years of his masters to get over her, but. FINE.

he’s not gonna talk about her brother. it happened only once. okay maybe once that particular night, at a bar and they were drunk and Wen Ning was nothing like his sister and the boy always had a slight crush on him and he was the one suggesting it, okay?

Wen Ning was kind and gentle and kissed way better than his sister and maybe after two years JC could get over it and move on and they could still be a family after all and that last stall in the staff toilet had been where JC’s bottom cherry was popped and oh gods that felt so good...

“actually, Jiang Cheng, you’re lovely. but I think I’m actually really straight so... I’m sorry. I hope we can still be friends?”

yeah. JC’s not gonna talk about fucking Wen Ning.

maybe the fact that his brother Wei Ying got married so soon was the reason why. it has to be.

JC hated, HATED Lan Zhan. he hated how much in love they were. how softly they moved around each other. how much he wanted some of that as well.

and since he was THAT petty he had to flirt with Lan Zhan’s brother (Lan Huan) because of it. the man was terrifyingly good looking and a gentleman. so much he didn’t want to give in to JC’s requests... because he already had a boyfriend.

JC knew nothing about said boyfriend aside from the fact that he was apparently a snake, whatever Wei Ying meant by that.

Lan Huan looked very intrigued, but he’s also very loyal and JC admired him for that. he didn’t want to have that conversation tho, the one where Lan Huan politely asked him to stop being so charming in his periphery, so JC decided to hide for a month or two and maybe extended that period of time and never show his face again while he’s at it.

Lan Zhan would have also had his head on a fucking plate if he dared touching his precious older brother so, there’s that as well.

so he dated a bunch of people after swiping them on apps left and right, got the hitch out of his system and felt miserable about it.

Nie HuaiSang came back into his life like, the day before JC started working for a new company and asked him out for a drink. HuaiSang was crushing for a man too young for HuaiSang’s comfort because he usually liked older men and this boy was fresh out of his bachelor and JC’s friend was well in his late twenties and didn’t have a job yet and...

JC shut him up with a kiss and they felt slightly less lonely afterwards, until they actually talked about their issues and decided to stop being messy and grow out of their bad habits.

JC still fells sick at the idea of being someone else’s “bad habit” though.

Wen Chao was a mistake.

Wen Chao’s girlfriend was a mistake.

Wen Chao’s brother was a mistake.

Their bloody uncle was a mistake.

Their father was an even more spectacular mistake.

JC has yet to find out how he survived the year of his thirtieth birthday, honestly. that shit had been wild as fuck.

YanLi and her husband offered JC to look after Jin Ling more often in order to make him feel some sense of safety, he knew that much. at the time, JC hated the fact that ZiXuan worried over him and that his own sister didn’t know how to help him either.

people at work had started to treat him differently as well, now that they knew how messy he was. he started getting treated for depression soon after being promoted to supervisor, his workaholic tendencies saving him from himself after years of sleeping around and drinking too much for his own good.

A-Su was YanLi’s friend from university and was kind enough to ask him out one day. she stayed with him for a year before apologizing to him, saying she wanted something more: a family, a future, something JC could have not given her anytime soon.

his brother and Lan Zhan adopted a boy and JC became an uncle for the second time. A-Yuan was difficult to look after, having survived stressful living conditions in his early childhood, so Wei Ying appreciated the extra hand when JC offered it to him and his husband.

looking after children forced him to be not so angry all the time and now Jin Ling had a cousin he could play with and was very glad his Jiujiu was feeling better.

when Lan Huan came back into his life, JC had forgotten about even attempting to win him over in his early twenties. it felt life a lifetime had passed.

they started as friends this time around, but JC felt nothing for him and he was okay with that. they were good uncles to A-Yuan and that was enough.

what really caught JC off guard was when Meng Yao stumbled upon him one day in midwinter, crashing on JC and sending his briefcase up in the air. the older man was apologetic and kind and gods forbid JC still needed some of that in his life. even if it was the other who had crashed into him, JC offered to buy him coffee since Meng Yao’s cup was now sadly rolling out frame on the snowy path.

to his utter astonishment, Meng Yao accepted.

JC took his time with him, willing to slow down and really get to know this new man who seemed so welcoming and easily approachable... yet so impossibly far and unreachable.

Meng Yao confessed cheating on his previous partner with his best friend five years prior and how he felt undeserving of another chance with someone as kind as JC. he revealed how therapy helped him work on his tendency of manipulating others and that this was the only reason why he wanted to be honest with JC and tell him the truth. so that the younger man could make up his mind if Meng Yao could be granted a chance with him.

this heartfelt confession startled JC in the beginning, especially bc Meng Yao seemed adamant about not sleeping with him for the foreseeable future, unless they talked it out some more.

on JC’s thirty-fourth birthday, one year after meeting Meng Yao, JC asks him to marry him during a pleasant dinner the older man has planned for him.

to his horror and absolute joy, A-Yao accepts.

JC didn’t mind not having been intimate with him until then, nor he would have minded if A-Yao never happened to change his mind on the matter. JC felt safe with him, even when he saw him reminiscing the past with grief painting his features behind his fake smile. JC knew he could give him happiness and so he asked him to meet the Jiangs for the first time to announce the good news.

all but Wei Ying and his husband have arrived the even JC brought A-Yao home, their car stuck in traffic. they start eating without them, with the couple’s permission. YanLi and ZiXuan didn’t bring A-Ling this time around, not willing to leave too soon and waste a chance to really get to know the new member of their family. JC’s father seemed pleased to meet with A-Yao, exchanging pleasantries and conversing about common interests...but JC’s mother is weirdly cold and distant that night.

once dinner came to a end, finally Wei Ying arrived, apologizing profusely for making the lot of them eat without them. however, nor he or his husband could take their eyes off of A-Yao...and neither could JC’s fiancé.

“if you still have some dignity to spare, I suggest you leave this very moment,” said Lan Zhan, the most he has ever spoken in one breath in front of JC. to which, to JC’s astonishment, A-Yao answered by giving JC one last look and the saddest smile he had ever worn...before leaving the house and never look back.

confused, heartbroken, humiliated...JC didn’t know what to feel when Lan Zhan explained to the lot of them what Meng Yao had done to Lan Huan after eight years together. cheating on the kindest man alive with an old acquaintance of his that to that day remained unnamed bc Meng Yao refused to reveal their identity.

JC’s mother didn’t have to tell her son that she had known all along something was off about A-Yao: JC could feel it in the way she was looking at him, sitting next to him on the couch. she had a sixth sense for venomous people.

the following year, JC is pretty sure it passed in a blur. he remembers working less hard than what he was expected to do, been consequently and rightfully demoted in his company. others gossiped about him being so proud for nothing in the end, which aggravated his mood.

to his surprise, his mother was the one suggesting him to take a break somewhere nice. to clear his head for a month or two before deciding what to do with his life. Wei Ying booked him a trip to Taiwan the following day and in less than a week JC is on a plane to take a long vacation there.

one night, roughly a week after his arrival at the hotel, JC was staring blankly at the skyline in deep thought. he had done the tourist-y shit, eaten all the foods in the best restaurants, brought presents for his family. and now he was bored out of his mind. the same, old questions swirling in his mind: did A-Yao lie when he said he loved him? did he lie just so he could have a fresh start and forget about the past? did he leave bc he felt guilty for his past with Lan Huan? was he serious when he had accepted JC’s proposal?

that’s when Mo XuanYu came barging into his life like a hurricane.

the younger man, seven years his junior, spotted him from an adjacent balcony and proceeded to talk to him as if...trying to de-escalate a suicide attempt from his part.

“sir, please. I’m sure there’s more to life than this. I don’t know what happened to make you feel this way but...everything will be fine in the end. I promise you. I was there. It’s okay. please don’t jump over the balcony.”

JC had no intention of jumping, just to be clear, but something in his eyes must have caught the kid’s attention and...was that a steward uniform he was wearing? did he work for the hotel? JC was none the wiser but that was the first time someone had reassured him so wholeheartedly without even knowing him and it felt...weird.

he started tearing up and the younger man panicked, promising to keep him company all night if necessary, reaching out with a hand to touch JC and reassure him from the other side. JC grasped it gingerly in his own and let himself be coaxed back to the realm of the living by such gentle soul.

JC hated himself for sleeping with him not even a week after their encounter.

but it just felt so good to let himself be guided by hand to the most hidden and wonderful places. away from the tourist crowd, eating delicious food with someone smiling prettily at him. yet he hated himself more for thinking about someone else in bed with him, at least in the beginning.

Mo XuanYu seemed to know anyway, and even encouraged him to just do whatever he felt like with him. casual hookups didn’t have to be meaningful, the younger man had said, and it wasn’t even the first time someone used him as a rebound either. still, something ugly stirred in JC at that.

so he decided to stop thinking about himself for once and shoved every bad memory away. all to pour his affection into someone else and cater to his lover for the following month and a half. borrowed time of a stolen season, during which JC doted on the younger man and learned to listen.

some of the stories Mo XuanYu told him felt slightly familiar, almost as if they had a friend in common and didn’t know who it might have been. after his shift, the younger man would ask to eat with JC and share his frustrations, repaying him in kindness with sweet kisses and even sweeter smiles that felt a little bit too brittle in the morning, when he was bound to leave.

by the end of JC’s trip it was clear to him that he had grown fond of the other man, too much for his own good. but during a vacation, away from home, surrounded by new and exciting things...anyone would have worn a mask to forget their normal life, that reality they would have eventually been forced to come back to.

by the end of his vacation, JC had figured out who their common friend was and remembered how distant Nie HuaiSang had felt falling in love with Mo XuanYu. how sad the younger man’s emotional unavailability has made him feel.

and when they parted ways at the airport, JC kissed him goodbye and never saw him again. the memory of Mo XuanYu’s brittle smile engraved forever in the back of his mind.

back to work. back to his bad bitch persona. it felt good to focus on his job and nothing else for a year or two, keeping others at distance while bossing them from his office as he regained his boss’s trust. being promoted a second time gave him the confidence he needed to move on with his life and by his thirty-seventh birthday he could finally see a future for himself.

therapy was helping a great deal and even his siblings seemed to notice his progress, praising him for his willingness to seek help and his hard work.

A-Yuan and A-Ling included: the kids were growing up too fast, involving their uncle in their school projects and plans for mischief any chance they got to see him.

Lan Huan caught everyone by surprise one day in autumn by confirming YanLi and Wei Ying’s suspicions about his breakup with Nie MingJue, Nie HuaiSang’s older brother.

the older man didn’t tell them why he had stepped back from his engagement with the man, aside from saying that the both of them had found out something concerning about their past and common acquaintances. the discovery making them feel so disheartened to the point of braking their engagement of mutual accord.

JC felt bad for the man, knowing how much it hurt to lose someone so dear. not that they had had been able to discuss over the matter much, not even after A-Yao had left. it would have been awkward to talk about their common ex and his penchant for secrets and hurting other people’s feelings.

but they understood each other well enough and started talking more, out of their common interest in their nephews and their well-being.

five years later, JC was forty-two and content with his life. A-Ling was close to thirteen and A-Yuan quickly approaching fifteen. he could see them growing up and out of his reach, but their affection for him never wavered. until one day A-Yuan called him in the middle of the night, startling him awake.

apparently, his best friend JinGyi had called him for help after being beaten up by his foster mother and A-Yuan didn’t know what to do. calling his parents would have only alerted and worried Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, who were probably still asleep and hadn’t even noticed their son had sneaked out in the middle of the night.

panicked and worried, JC called Lan Huan instead and they left for the hospital. and something hurt at the sight of such a young boy lying still on a bed too big for him. something else clicked in JC’s brain at the sight but it would have taken him several months to realize what exactly.

furious and restless, Lan Huan spend months looking for the woman who had hurt the child, eventually destroying her in court until he pried a confession out of her. social services immediately alerted as JC inquired over the possibility of giving the child a permanent home himself.

not even a year later, JC was able to welcome the kid in their new house in the quietest part of town. it took a while for the boy to adjust, worrying over JC eventually changing his mind and letting him go. “who even adopts someone close to be of age?” JinGyi had asked, frustrated and certain JC would grow bored of him.

but JC was there to reassure him every step of the way, telling him family was forever and not something easily dismissible. he repeated it until the boy seemed satisfied and called him “dad” for the first time one inconspicuous evening at dinner. if JC cried on his pizza, well, nobody has to know.

Lan Huan was glad to listen to JC gushing over his son, more than supportive and borderline enthusiastic to listen to every little progress and new success.

JC knew this was enough, but he would lie saying he hadn’t felt loved by the other man. yet, he didn’t dare hope he could have another chance at happiness at almost fifty years old. Lan Huan himself close to fifty-five and well settled into his career as a lawyer...too much to consider a valuable partnership with someone like JC.

his therapist had bashed him for ages over such insecurity, but JC could only smile at him and shrug. many people didn’t find their happy ending and he still had JinGyi to look after. which seemed a good way to spend the rest of his life.

so it came as a surprise when, one evening, as JC overlooked at Lan Huan building a piece of furniture with JinGyi in their living room, he started crying with love and affection.

“why are you crying Jiang Cheng?”

“I’m happy.”

he really was.

he still is to this day.

[they don’t marry, but they do spend the rest of their life together anyway]

I need a break, this took days to make D:

80 notes · View notes

bloody-bee-tea · 4 years

Text

Untamed Winter Fest Day 4

Decorating

Wei Wuxian sits still, while A-Yuan is decorating his hair with all the beads and clips he could find, and some, Wei Wuxian is sure about that, he stole from kindergarten.

“Almost done, baba,” A-Yuan tells him as he yanks at yet another strand of hair before his clumsy chubby fingers clip a no doubt sparkling bead into it, and Wei Wuxian patiently waits until A-Yuan deems his hair to be pretty enough.

“Are you sure you have enough clips?” Wei Wuxian asks teasingly when yet another ten minutes pass, and he can almost see A-Yuan pout behind him.

“It’s too much hair,” A-Yuan tells him seriously as he puts two clips in rapid succession into his hair and Wei Wuxian laughs.

“Wait until you have your hair grown out, then I’ll be the one to put all the pretty sparkling things into it!” he says and spins around to tickle A-Yuan.

“Noooo,” he shrieks, clumsily pushing Wei Wuxian’s hands away but he’s laughing and that’s the only thing that matters.

A-Yuan didn’t have anything to laugh about for way too long now.

A-Yuan finally gets away from Wei Wuxian, and he takes the opportunity to dash away, his little feet carrying him through the apartment as quick as they can, and Wei Wuxian takes off after him, careful to always just be one step behind him.

A-Yuan’s happy shrieks fill the rooms and Wei Wuxian’s heart blooms with the sound of it.

He skids to a stop in front of a mirror, exaggerating gasp leaving his lips and it’s enough to bring A-Yuan back, peering around the corner in case it’s a trick.

A-Yuan knows him too well already, Wei Wuxian fondly thinks, before he concentrates back on his reflection.

“Who is this handsome man in the mirror?” he asks and turns his head this and that way, making the beads sparkle. “Look at his pretty hair! I wonder what master did the decorating?” he muses and A-Yuan giggles before he runs forward to hug Wei Wuxian’s leg.

“I did, I did!” he tells Wei Wuxian.

“And you did such a pretty job!” Wei Wuxian tells him, leaning down to pick A-Yuan up and lift him high, getting more happy giggles out of the boy.

Wei Wuxian hopes he can protect him forever.

“Where did you get all of the clips anyway?” Wei Wuxian asks as he settles A-Yuan on his hip and he immediately reaches out to play with a rainbow one in Wei Wuxian’s hair.

“Aunt Qing gave them to me,” he tells Wei Wuxian.

He wonders when Wen Qing had the time to stop by the kindergarten, wonders if it was safe for them, but he shakes his head at that thought. Wen Qing would never do anything to put A-Yuan into danger.

“Did she say anything about your Uncle Ning?” Wei Wuxian asks but A-Yuan shakes his head.

Still in a coma then, Wei Wuxian thinks and presses a kiss to A-Yuan’s cheek.

“Do you want to take a picture of your work, so you can show Aunt Qing the next time you see her?” he asks, and A-Yuan immediately lights up again, nodding vigorously.

“Then go get the phone,” Wei Wuxian says and puts A-Yuan back down, just as the doorbell rings.

They both freeze for a second, Wei Wuxian because their time on the run is still too close, too present, and A-Yuan because he is too clever for his age and knows when to keep quiet.

“Go to your room,” Wei Wuxian quietly tells him, because they are not expecting anyone, and better to be safe than sorry.

“Yes, baba,” A-Yuan says and shuffles away.

Wei Wuxian waits until the door is closed behind him, before he goes to the front door.

By now he really wishes they had gotten the heavy security system Wen Qing had insisted on, just so he could check who was on the other side of the door without actually opening it, but he had declined that offer in an attempt to appear normal.

It was important for A-Yuan to not stand out too much.

Wei Wuxian takes a deep breath before he plasters a smile on his face as he opens the door, but as soon as he sees who’s on the other side, it falls away again.

“Lan Zhan,” he whispers, the longing hitting him so suddenly and so hard that he almost reaches out for him the moment he sees him.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says, a relieved note to his voice and Wei Wuxian’s eyes burn at hearing his voice.

But then reality settles back in, and it’s like he was doused in ice cold water.

“How much time do we have?” he asks, trying to push the desperation down and focus.

They have been here for barely more than half a year, after almost three on the run to get Jin Guangshan off their trail, and A-Yuan has finally made some friends, adjusted to this new life.

Of course it would come to a crashing end now.

Lan Zhan just stares at him, and Wei Wuxian steps forward, takes his arm and shakes him a little bit.

“Lan Zhan, how much time do we have?”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says again, like he can’t believe he found him and Wei Wuxian shakes his head.

“Tell me, when did you tell your brother? How much time do A-Yuan and I have?” he demands to know but Lan Zhan just stares at him like he doesn’t understand.

Wei Wuxian wants to believe it, that Lan Zhan doesn’t know what’s going on, but even if he doesn’t Lan Xichen must have helped him find Wei Wuxian. And if Lan Xichen knows, then so does Jin Guangyao, who certainly told his father.

Which means Wei Wuxian maybe has an hour at most to get A-Yuan and run.

“Baba?” A-Yuan suddenly asks from behind him, and Wei Wuxian moves in front of him on instinct, trying to shield him from Lan Zhan.

He sees the hurt on Lan Zhan’s face at that, the confusion there too, but he can’t let that matter, no matter how much it pains him to see that.

The only thing that matters is A-Yuan.

“Do we have to leave again?” A-Yuan asks, voice small and shaking and Wei Wuxian puts a hand to his head.

“Yes, baby. Get your stuff,” he instructs, glad he always keeps an emergency bag packed for both of them.

“I don’t wanna leave again,” A-Yuan whispers and Wei Wuxian can hear the tears in his voice.

He thinks if A-Yuan starts crying now, he’ll just cry with him.

“I know,” he tries to calm him down. “But they found us and so we have to leave.”

“Is he an evil man?” A-Yuan asks and peers around Wei Wuxian’s legs to look at Lan Zhan.

“No, he’s not,” Wei Wuxian says, because that, at least, is something he knows with certainty.

Lan Zhan would never deliberately hand them over to Jin Guangshan, Wei Wuxian is sure of that. But it doesn’t change the fact that he shares everything with his brother, who is wrapped around Jin Guangyao’s little finger.

“Then why do we have to leave? I don’t wanna leave, I have friends here! Why do you always make us leave, I hate you!” A-Yuan suddenly screams and now the tears Wei Wuxian was keeping at bay really threaten to fall.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says alarmed, steps into the apartment, arm outstretched as if to comfort Wei Wuxian, but he picks up A-Yuan and retreats further into the apartment.

“Don’t--I can’t--why did you have to come look for us?” he asks, voice shaking and he hates himself for it.

He has missed Lan Zhan so much these past years, always wished that he could somehow contact him, hear his voice again, but he couldn’t endanger A-Yuan like that.

“You just left,” Lan Zhan says, like that explains anything and Wei Wuxian shakes his head at him.

“I had to,” he whispers, presses A-Yuan close him as he strokes a soothing hand up and down his back. “I had to protect him.”

Wei Wuxian still remembers when Wen Qing stood at his doorstep, run down and shaking, an exhausted A-Yuan on her hip and her brother fresh in the hospital. It had taken Wei Wuxian barely an hour to pack his things and run with A-Yuan.

He was supposed to meet with Lan Zhan that evening.

Lan Zhan tears his eyes away from Wei Wuxian for the first time since he opened the door and he looks at A-Yuan, who is still sniffling slightly. Wei Wuxian fights the instinct to shield him again, reminds himself that Lan Zhan himself is not a danger, but it’s hard. Three years is a lot of time to form some habits.

“He’s a Wen,” Lan Zhan finally whispers and Wei Wuxian flinches.

“He goes by Wei Yuan, now,” he gives back.

He still remembers the first time he held the forged papers in his hands, how he wished it could be true, that A-Yuan was truly his, but it was just the most practical thing at that time.

“Your son,” Lan Zhan nods, and he closes the door behind him, causing Wei Wuxian to flinch.

Lan Zhan sees it, and he uncertainly steps away from the door.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he says, as if Wei Wuxian could ever think he would.

“That’s not it, Lan Zhan,” he tries to explain. “But if you’re here, your brother knows, he helped you, and if he knows, then so does Jin Guangyao. You know how your brother is. He probably didn’t mean to, but he will have told him and Jin Guangyao just wants to please his dad. We have to leave, now.”

“Not my brother,” Lan Zhan explains with a shake of his head. “Yours.”

“Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian breathes out and the longing slams into him again hard.

He misses his family so much.

“We had two possible locations,” Lan Zhan explains and just on queue his phone starts to ring.

Lan Zhan holds it out for Wei Wuxian to see, the name ‘Jiang Wanyin’ flashing brightly on the screen and Wei Wuxian takes it with shaking hands.

He accepts the call and presses it to his ear.

“He’s not here, so you better tell me you found him, Lan Wangji,” Jiang Cheng’s voice fills Wei Wuxian’s ear, and he can hear the worry under the angry demand and he can’t help the sob that breaks through.

There is silence on the other end of the line.

“Wei Wuxian?” Jiang Cheng carefully asks and now Wei Wuxian cries for real.

“You goddamn fucking idiot,” Jiang Cheng snaps and Wei Wuxian laughs through his tears because of course.

It wouldn’t be Jiang Cheng if he wasn’t abrasive like this.

“You’re going to come home,” Jiang Cheng demands. “A-jie has been worried sick about you.”

“I can’t, I can’t,” Wei Wuxian mumbles, because A-Yuan is still his priority.

Has to be, no matter how much he misses everyone.

Lan Zhan carefully slides the phone out of his hand and puts the call on speaker.

“He has the boy,” he tells Jiang Cheng who mutters “Of course” under his breath.

“They are going to come home,” Jiang Cheng says again and Wei Wuxian shakes his head.

“I can’t, A-Yuan--,”

“Will be safe,” Jiang Cheng interrupts him. “I know you didn’t trust us with this, but we’ve been building a case against Jin Guangshan. We need you to come home.”

“A case?” Wei Wuxian asks and looks with wide eyes at Lan Zhan.

“Mh,” he agrees. “We’re missing a witness. We’re missing you.”

“A-Xian, you can come home,” Jiang Cheng says and his voice is uncharacteristically soft.

Wei Wuxian blames that for the new tears.

“Baba?” A-Yuan asks and puts his little hands on Wei Wuxian’s face, tries to wipe the tears away.

“We’re going home, baby,” Wei Wuxian tells him and really, the way A-Yuan’s face lights up could be his only reason to live.

“Home to Uncle Ning and Aunt Qing and Grandma?” he shrieks and Wei Wuxian looks at Lan Zhan for an answer.

He doesn’t know if Grandma made it out in time, but Lan Zhan nods.

“Yes, baby,” Wei Wuxian gladly tells him, and almost chokes when A-Yuan throws his arms around his neck and squeezes tight.

Wei Wuxian keeps his eyes on Lan Zhan, sees how his features soften and he has missed him so much.

“I didn’t mean to leave you,” he whispers, doesn’t know if he’s still allowed to say things like that to him, but Lan Zhan smiles faintly at him, the one Wei Wuxian loves best, the one that’s mostly visible in the corner of his eyes.

“I know that,” Lan Zhan says and reaches out for Wei Wuxian, takes his hand and pulls him close, so that he can press a lingering kiss to Wei Wuxian’s forehead. “Won’t let you or A-Yuan go again, now,” he promises and Wei Wuxian is yet again stunned just how good Lan Zhan is.

“Okay,” Wei Wuxian agrees, because it’s everything he wants in his life.

It will be okay now.

#bt writes #the untamed #mdzs #untamed winter fest #wangxian #a-yuan #au #hurt/comfort #modern au

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spaceskam · 4 years

Text

in dreams of days and nights and everything in between

ao3

Lan Sizhui understood, on some level, that his memories couldn’t be entirely accurate.

No one had perfect memories, after all, and the fact that he’d lost his for so many years only made them less credible. Still, they felt real. They felt nice. That just couldn’t possibly be true. A childhood among corpses during a war shouldn’t have been nice.

He’d heard enough stories from enough mouths to know they couldn’t have been so happy up there. Long days, long nights, always just working to survive. He’d been told Wei Wuxian had been raising an army, but he knew that wasn’t true. Even so, the truth was that there were a plethora of elderly men and women who were weak and a still uncontrollable Wen Ning. What was joyful about that? What was joyful about being unsure of if there would be enough to eat, about the uncertainty of their survival, about a world full of people seeing them as monsters, about being raised by the most hated man alive?

But, when he sifted through his own mind, he couldn’t find any of that.

He remembered crying, sure, but it was never like that. When he was hungry, they gave him food. When he was cold, they kept him warm. When he was scared, they held him. Names and faces were blurry now, but he was never unloved. He never felt lonely.

Sometimes, when he slept, he could remember things a little bit better. They got a little more vivid.

“Ah, A-Yuan,” Xian-gege had said, lifting him over a tree root that was protruding from the ground seconds before he could trip, “Watch where you’re going.”

A-Yuan just laughed, jumping again and again until Xian-gege laughed with him and grabbed his hand a little tighter to lift him off his feet again. He lifted him higher, swinging him a bit, and then swung him all the way up until he landed on his hip. A-Yuan smiled wide, his fingers going to his mouth as he settled against him.

They walked up towards home easily, navigating all the old trees that looked the same if you didn’t look at them enough. A-Yuan had, though, and he was sure he could walk all the way home all by himself. He never had to, though.

“You have to watch where you’re going,” Xian-gege said again. A-Yuan looked up at him. “Always, no matter what. You can’t stay safe if you don’t pay attention.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s dangerous,” he said.

“Why?”

Xian-gege scrunched up his nose and looked at him. A-Yuan smiled until he smiled right back. He took a deep breath and looked up, so A-Yuan looked up too.

“Ah, Wen Yuan, you’re a smart boy. You understand I’m here now to watch for you, but you have to watch so, when I’m no longer here, you can watch for yourself,” he said. A-Yuan reached out to touch his face.

“Where is Xian-gege going?”

“Nowhere,” he said and he said it firm because he meant it. A-Yuan nodded.

They walked a few more steps and A-Yuan watched. When he saw another tree root in the ground, he pointed.

“Xian-gege!” he said, “Watch where you go!”

He laughed and jumped over the root that was hardly sticking out of the ground.

“Good boy,” he said, “You’ll be good at watching all by yourself one day. And you can watch for others too. That’s very good.”

“Why?”

“You should always watch for others,” he said, “It’s the right thing. Even when they say it isn’t, it’s the right thing.”

“Why?”

“Ah, you ask so many questions!” Xian-gege announced loudly, but he looked at him with a smile, “You see, one day, if I’m not here, you’ll watch for me. I’ll be gone, but it’ll be all fine because you’ll be here to watch and all of this, all the trees, all the mountain, all the sky, all the people, will be all yours. You’ll be the one who knows it best.”

“Mine?” A-Yuan repeated.

“Everything,” Xian-gege said, nodding. A-Yuan blinked hard and nodded, looking around. There was so many things to be all his. “Everything inside the wards. And, when you get a little older, I’ll show you how that works as well.”

“And outside?”

“Outside the ward...” he said, taking a long break, “Outside isn’t safe unless you’re with someone else. Your Xian-gege or your Qing-jie or, or the gege in white and blue. Remember him?”

“Rich gege!”

“Yes, he’s safe too, I think,” Xian-gege said, “So we stay safe here, inside the wards. Until you’re all big and grown and more powerful than even me, you don’t try to go out alone, you understand?”

And Lan Sizhui did understand.

He sat up in bed, a little out of breath and his eyebrows drawn together as he looked around. He was at home, safe in the Cloud Recesses. Things weren’t like that anymore. Wei Wuxian was roaming the world and Hanguang-Jun was adjusting to being Chief Cultivator and Sect leader while Zewu-Jun was in seclusion. Wen Ning was allowed inside the Cloud Recesses under the condition that Hanguang-Jun was aware when that was. Lan Sizhui (assuming Zewu-Jun had no children of his own) was set to be Sect leader one day due to strings that he had no idea how Hanguang-Jun pulled.

It was all better, it seemed.

But that didn’t stop him from thinking about the Burial Mounds of Yiling. He remembered when they’d traveled up there before all hell really broke loose and he remembered being weirdly comfortable with his surroundings. He just hadn’t pieced together why. He wondered if he went back there now if he would know it even better.

Lan Sizhui got dressed quickly and quietly. He knew it was inappropriate to be so impulsive and outright against the rules to be breaking curfew, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to see. So he left a note in his bed, telling whoever read it that he’d be back within a few days, and quietly made his way out of the Cloud Recesses.

He stood in front of the wards, unguarded by anything else for the night, and took a deep breath. He could hear Wei Wuxian in his head, telling him it wasn’t safe to leave alone. But he was grown now, wasn’t he? He led a group of other disciples on night hunts all the time, so he could go alone.

Besides, no one was here to tell him otherwise.

With a deep breath, he quickly dismantled the wards only to let himself out and then he put them right back up. It took only a few seconds and yet, by the time he turned around, Wen Ning was standing there and staring at him.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” he said when Lan Sizhui took a sharp breath in, “I didn’t mean to scare you, A-Yuan.”

“It’s alright,” he promised, smiling softly to make sure he knew he wasn’t scared.

“It’s very late.”

“I know,” Lan Sizhui said, looking around. He gave it only a few minutes before someone came to check the wards. As tired as Hanguang-Jun was these days, he was never that tired. “Let’s go, I’ll tell you on the way.”

Once they were far enough out and well on their way to Moling and, hopefully, Yiling by the next morning, Lan Sizhui started to talk. Or, he did his best. It was still strange trying to vocalize what he remembered or what he wanted to know. But Wen Ning was always helpful and filled in any gaps that he could.

“I had a dream about Luanzang Hill,” Lan Sizhui began softly. Wen Ning blinked with his wide eyes, clearly listening intently. “And I want to go back there.”

“But,” he started, a million different feelings passing through his eyes in a way he was incapable of hiding, “Did-did you tell Wei-gonzi? Or Hanguang-Jun? They, they might not think--”

“No,” Lan Sizhui said, “That’s why I didn’t tell them. I don’t want them telling me no.”

“But--”

“You don’t have to come with me,” he said, “But please don’t tell them. I need to go see it on my own, without them watching me. I need to, Wen-shushu.”

That seemed like enough to make him agree.

The sun was already peaking over the horizon by the time they made their way into Moling. They fetched a few things to eat for the rest of the trip before Wen Ning kept his head down as they approached a man by the river that would take them closer to Yiling. Lan Sizhui charmed him until he allowed them to rent a boat for longer than his usual time frame. Wen Ning stared at him intently the entire time, but he didn’t ask why.

“Do you remember everyone who lived with us then?” Lan Sizhui asked as they got going. He gave a little spiritual power that he’d normally use to fly to make the boat go a little faster.

“Yes.”

“All of them?” he asked, “In my dream, Wei Wuxian mentioned someone called Qing-jie. Was she real or did I dream it?”

Wen Ning gave a little smile, “My sister.”

Lan Sizhui’s eyes went wide and he sat up a bit straighter, the boat slowing as his focus faltered. He had never been told that. Then again, he’d never been told about a lot of things. Hanguang-Jun was many things. Talkative wasn’t one of them. Funnily enough, the more Wei Wuxian spoke, the less he actually said. Neither of them were any help.

“I didn’t know your sister was there,” he said, “I don’t know if I remember her, I’m sorry.”

“I remember her,” Wen Ning said. Lan Sizhui smiled.

The boat ride was filled with stories of Wen Qing, strong and resilient and smart. She was a doctor and unapologetic about her intelligence, even when it came to the great Yiling Patriarch who had saved them all. She was the only one who never seemed afraid to lecture him. And she cared for everyone fiercely, including A-Yuan. She made sure he was clean and fed and warm and loved. Lan Sizhui felt an unspeakable amount of guilt when, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember her face.

“Did she look like you?” Lan Sizhui asked, desperate to at least try. Wen Ning paused in thought for a moment before he shook his head.

“She was perfect,” he decided on. Lan Sizhui couldn’t disagree.

They kept talking. Wen Ning got more comfortable and more animated as he continued to tell stories. He drifted away from just stories from the Burial Mounds and told stories about his time in the Cloud Recesses and how he met Wei Wuxian in the first place.

It was a funny thing to hear about stories of when Hanguang-Jun and Wei Wuxian were young, but it was nice to know neither of them had really changed all that much. Wei Wuxian was still brash, Hanguang-Jun was still stoic, and they were both always incredibly smart and where the trouble was. If nothing else in the world made sense, that did.

“I spoke to Huanguang-Jun, ah, Lan-er-gongzi very little,” Wen Ning said, “But I, I know he’s a good man. He, he took care of you, just as Wei-gongzi took care of you, even with... They’re very good men, very strong.”

“Yes,” Lan Sizhui said, nodding his head as he thought back to times he remembered far better.

He’d followed Hanguang-Jun around whenever he could and, in the times he couldn’t because he was hurt, he followed Zewu-Jun. He never really remembered where they thought he came from. Hanguang-Jun was his a-die. Simple as that. Perhaps that’s when the strings to make him an option as an heir was possible.

“They raised you well,” Wen Ning said, smiling and nodding.

“They might not think so when they find out where we’re going,” Lan Sizhui said. It was meant as teasing, but Wen Ning’s eyes went wide and he shook his head.

“No, they will always think so,” Wen Ning said, “A-Yuan is very good.”

“Thank you.”

As the sun began to set again, Wen Ning urged him to take a nap and he’d wake him when they got to the right place. He didn’t want to argue and he also hadn’t slept in too many hours under the sun with too little sleep from the night before, so he agreed. He closed his eyes and laid in the boat, trying to keep closer to a meditative state rather than actual sleep.

However, it wasn’t long before he found himself on the Burial Mounds of Yiling all over again.

“Mine!”

“And who told you that? Xian-gege?” Qing-jie said, a scowl on her face as she brushed dirt off him. A-Yuan pouted until her face softened. “Xian-gege will tell you all the tales in the world, but it doesn’t make it so.”

“Ah, don’t lie to him,” Xian-gege said from somewhere. A-Yuan tried to look for him, but he couldn’t see him.

“Oh, perfect timing! The infamous Yiling Patriarch can come do his evil duties and wash his clothes you let him dirty!” Qing-jie yelled towards him. No sound came and he didn’t come closer. Qing-jie just rolled her eyes and focused back on A-Yuan. “Xian-gege plays games.”

“A-Yuan likes games.”

“I bet you do,” she said, reaching up to his hair. She took it down and the scooped it all up into a bun.

When she was done, she stared at him. Even when he looked away and got distracted by everything he could see, she looked at him. There was something wrong, but she said nothing of the sort. She never really did. Not in front of him, not if it was serious.

“Let’s go take a bath, A-Yuan,” she said, “Then I’ll toss you into Xian-gege’s bed for the night and he can deal with what’s yours or not.”

His hands went to his mouth as he nodded. She stood up and reached for his other hand, leading the way. She walked with her head held high. Whatever was wrong didn’t change that.

Lan Sizhui woke up with a start and it startled Wen Ning enough that he jumped back. He took a deep breath and saw that they were docked on the riverbed, Luanzang Hill visible in the distance.

“A-Yuan, are you alright?” Wen Ning asked.

“Yes, I’m alright,” he said, his eyes unable to move from the place he couldn’t stop thinking about. It was still very dark out, the moon lighting the sky. It should’ve been much more ominous than it felt. “I just... had a dream.”

“Oh.”

Lan Sizhui felt a little dazed as they made sure the boat was secure and started their walk towards the Burial Mounds. It took him a few minutes to really digest his dream before he could ask anything about it.

“Your sister,” Lan Sizhui started, “Qing-jie, ah, Wen Qing? She... She knew it wasn’t permanent there, didn’t she?”

“Hm? Oh, I-I don’t know,” Wen Ning said. When Lan Sizhui looked at him, it was clear he really didn’t know. Maybe she treated Wen Ning the same way she’d treated him.

Lan Sizhui decided not to ask about it more. It was in the past. Whatever he thought about it now didn’t matter. The fact was Wei Wuxian had given them a handful of happy months, whether they knew it was impossible to keep everyone safe forever or not no longer mattered.

Perhaps he stayed a little too lost in thought because before he knew it, the sun was rising again. He knew by now it was long past the time people had noticed he was gone, but Hanguang-Jun hadn’t appeared on Bichen so it was clear he trusted him enough to know he wasn’t going to get himself killed. Or maybe he just trusted Wen Ning enough to know he would protect him.

They passed a few people on their way towards Luanzang Hill, but no one really gave them more than a cursory glance. It helped not to shake him out of his thoughts that only seemed to get louder as they got closer.

They reached a certain point and Wen Ning stopped walking and Lan Sizhui followed suit. A few feet away was a broken down structure, weathered and old. He’d seen it before when he’d come up here with the other juniors, but it felt a little different now when it was just him and Wen Ning.

“This is the entrance,” he said, looking over to Wen Ning. He looked back and nodded before they turned to the entrance together.

And they took a few steps through it.

Lan Sizhui took a deep breath as he let himself take in his surroundings. All the trees were virtually the same, but he knew the closer to home he got, the less it would look right. They’d destroyed so much. But this...

“If I’m not here, you’ll watch it for me,” Lan Sizhui whispered to himself, scanning the surroundings easily, “You’ll be the one who knows it best.”

Wen Ning who smiling at him. He was young perpetually and he acted even younger, but his mind was still wise in ways that maybe was a bit harder to appreciate. In this moment, though, he was the only one that understood. The only one who could.

Lan Sizhui turned towards the entrance and took a deep breath, carefully mimicking the way the Cloud Recesses set their wards. They locked into place, sealing them inside, and Lan Sizhui felt like he could breath a little easier.

“Everything inside the wards,” Wen Ning recited. Lan Sizhui looked over at him, eyes a little wide, but he wasn’t looking back. Instead, he was facing the way home. “Do you remember the way?”

“I think so,” Lan Sizhui said softly. He swallowed hard and took a determined step forward. “Let’s go.”

And they stepped over the tree root together.

#lan sizhui & wen ning #lan sizhui #wen ning #wen yuan #wei wuxian #the untamed #i have no fucking idea how to tag this #my fic

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guiltycorp · 4 years

Text

Really because of the focus on wangxian romantic happy ending, it might not be immediately obvious how much of a tragedy the whole story is, but look at them?

Wei Wuxian never had an official family, always unsure of his place by the Yunmeng siblings side and his goals in first life were all about becoming a powerful cultivator, helping the weak, paying back the Jiang Sect, and remaining by Jiang Cheng’s side; he had to give up his Golden Core to pay back the sect & help Jiang Cheng, and so he could no longer be a traditional cultivator, and so he became somewhat of a liability to the sect; the only purpose left to him was helping the weak and that ended with... all Wen refugees slaughtered! Except for Wen Ning the undead corpse (tortured and mind-controlled for longer than a decade) and Wen Yuan, whose life was saved by Lan Wangji. In his second life, Wei Wuxian was so aimless that the initial goal to amass a new undead army was easily forgotten in lieu of going on a nice detective night hunt and after Jin Guangyao’s fall he turned all his attention to his new husband and continued night hunting with intervals of staying at the Cloud Recesses (a very hostile place to somebody like wwx let’s be honest). And in the drama no husband for him either! Or at least not at first -- either way he’s given up and goes with the flow, all his youthful dreams and loyalties ruined in one way or another. At least he does have Lan Wangji and the juniors to dote on.

Oh but what about that poor Lan Wangji? He had the worst time starting with his childhood when his loving mother straight-up died from melancholy, his father sequestered himself away and his uncle drilled him into becoming the perfect status-quo upholding puppet. At least Xichen obviously gained some external influences which might explain why Lan Wangji didn’t grow up to be a complete self-hating zealot -- it was already quite hard for him when Wei Wuxian acted as if he had seen through the upright facade or at least tried to get LWJ to shed it somewhat (side note: judging by the first chapters in-universe gayness was at best tolerated in Gusu Lan, but not on the same level as heterosexual love, and in the drama we get Xue Yang’s comments to wwx, also a bit ambiguous). All that trust in rules led to Lan Wangji's false belief that things with Wei Wuxian and the Wens he harbored would work out, because surely the main sects would maintain neutrality? Yet, the 50-something refugees were still massacred and the righteous Lan sect was on the side of the killers (probably blowed his mind a bit right there) and when Lan Wangji finally made the decision to take a stand and protect at least Wei Wuxian, his uncle and brother led 33 elders to their hiding place. Say what you will, but it’s unlikely that Lan Wangji was the one to land the first hit, as he was sitting down with a delirious wwx passing him spiritual energy. The Gusu Lan elders attacked their best disciple (and a warhero!) in order to finish off an injured criminal who had no direct grievances against the Lan sect. All while his brother and uncle stood by. And even then he was so faithful to the sect’s principles that he left Wei Wuxian alone after being told to do so and returned for his almost-deadly punishment, signed off on by his older brother the sect leader. And then Wei Wuxian died, because come on, why would you leave him alone when he was like that?? Of course he died! It’s quite regrettable that we weren’t given Wangji’s perspective on the Gusu Lan sect’s actions, but at the very least it’s obvious that he couldn’t leave since he needed them to take care of A-Yuan. Quite a situation: imagine lying bed-ridden for 3 years, relying on the mercy of your sect to both heal the sect-inflicted injuries and to take care of a child, the only remaining Wen too. No wonder he spent the remaining 13/16 years ‘going where the chaos is’, I wouldn’t want to spend much time home either! While Lan Yuan grows up to be quite healthy and Lan Wangji does get his necromancer sweetheart back, he either gets to love his husband but do nothing about the status quo (novel) or actually work to change and improve the cultivation world but without a husband by his side (drama).

I’m not even touching Jiang Cheng or Nie Huaisang, I mean come on. Mianmian probably has the best life out of all characters.

#the untamed #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #text #a bit negative i guess

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ctl-yuejie · 5 years

Note

For the untamed ask game 5, 8, 10, 17, 16, 19, 21 35, 46 and 55

5. Biggest WTF momentThe golden core reveal in the book! ( read it before the drama so I don’t know how much I’d have been surprised without prior knowledge watching the scene in the series). Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention, but from what I remember I wasn’t even sure that Wei Wuxian had lost his Golden Core at that point. So I was extremely shocked by the reveal and also very excited because it made his past actions much more understandable and his dynamic with both Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji got even more interesting.

8. Most Confusing Part In The Storyon my first read i had a hard time remembering all characters so i think i zoned out a lot when the story didn’t focus on wangxian, so not necessarily a particular part of the story that confused me but i was just not paying enough attention. also: the timeline is random af.

10. Favourite Fanfic Set-Up Uhhhh!!! I love me powerful Yiling Patriarch stories where he survives the second sunshot campaign and anything and everything that focuses on the Yunmeng brothers relationship after canon. Also: every fanfic about the WangXian family regardless of universe.some great “bamf!wei wuxian survives the second sunshot campaign and adopts everyone”

16. Favourite Habitwei wuxian talking non-stop about lan wangji after they’ve met. so much so that the whole jiang family (read: jiang cheng) is super annoyed by it.

17. Purer Cinnamon Role Than Wen Ning (sorry for all these typos in the ask game) hmmmm…Wen Ning is pretty much peak pure cinnamon roll, but from the younger generation Ouyang Zizhen might even out-perform him. sure he is loud and direct, but also doesn’t know how to act in most social situations because the world is such a happy place for him and did you know that Hanguang-Jun and Senior Mo are dating and they’re not as dramatic about it as I want them to be but still super cute, and wtf Hanguang-Jun is now married to the Yiling Patriarch and all my dreams have come true, i have no idea why Lan Qiren looks so constipated maybe that’s because of Jingyi…..19. Cinnamon Role Meme (4 Characters) 21. A Fanon You Like hmmmm….this is pretty much canon but WangXian adopting everyone and everything while roaming the country & Wei Wuxian managing to cultivate MO Xuanyu’s core.and the lan wangji played inquiry for 16 years fanon. not because i think lan wangji would try and bind wei wuxian’s spirit to him but more so to find out whether he’s at peace and at some point it becomes this tiny remembrance song he plays for wei ying once a year.

35. Who Is The Biggest Disaster many disasters in this one but maybe Jin Zixuan??? i think he is so lucky for Jiang Yanli to be persistent in her love for him and MianMian intervening to clear up some misunderstandings…left on his own he really is a sad disaster.

but there’s some tough competition from wei wuxian, jiang cheng, jinling and more…

46. Favourite Fanfic / A Fanfic You Want To Recommendprepare yourself! (if not stated otherwise it’s wangxian)

since then i am because you are by sarahyyy (very short, fluff, oblivious wei wuxian & marriage)

overcast by willowcatkin (middle-length, canon divergence, role revearsal, accidental child acquisition)

and so my heart beats wildly by lily_winterwood (long fic, modern au with cultivation as an olympic sport, wangxian are competitors)

The (Several) Convenient Kidnappings of the Chief Cultivator by the Yiling Patriarch by misscam (short, some silly sexy fun)

your heart, two doors down by ficklish (middle-length, modern au, wangxian are neighbours, single parent! wei wuxian)

A Little Happiness by Suspicious_Popsicle (middle-length, post-canon, lan wangji turns into a child, everyone panics & wei wuxian just wants him to be happy)

asymptotic by chinxe (middle-length, canon divergence, lan wangji plays inquiry, that is how he encounters wei wuxian for the first time, beautiful but it also hurts)

transcendent by hyunbyun (short, wei wuxian is insecure about being in mo xuanyu’s body, domestic fluff)

Continuation by thefaceofno (long fic, post the untamed canon, hair brushing, some more pining but happy end)

i’d be all right (if i could just see you) byThirtySixSaveFiles (long fic, college au, wei wuxian is an idiot and takes lan wangji to a party)

Libation by BastetCG (middle-length, gods au, tentacle sex but in a very innovative way)

a lot can come from being in love with your captain bythefaceofno (long fic, part of a series, star trek au, various pairings, action & romance)

How Wei Ying Went from Oblivious Idiot to Shameless Boyfriend in Three Days by misscam (middle-length, college au, wei wuxian is oblivious but tries to be oh so helpful when lan wangji seems to have a crush on someone)

Adventures in Solitude by etymologyplayground (short, hurt/comfort, the untamed episode 16 canon divergence, lan wangji tries to come to the aid of yunmeng)

every time we kiss i swear i could fly by sarahyyy (short, kissing booth college au, lan wangji has a misunderstanding and is sad but all is well)

The Last Three Feet by etymologyplayground (middle-length, wangxian are oblivious, domestic downtime in cloud recesses with sizhui)

A Start on How by misscam (middle-lenght, college au, sleepovers!!, lan brother feels)

critical path analysis by chinxe (long fic, b99 au, hilarious perfection, it is scary how well the characters fit)

dirty politics by sarahyyy (short, politics au, wangxian are in a secret relationship but oh so wonderful together)

Rumor Doesn’t Have It (But Wei Wuxian Is Determined to Change That) by misscam (middle-length, post the untamed canon, everyone is weighing in on the relationship of the yiling patriarch and the chief cultivator, maybe wei wuxian should make some of the rumours come true)

Found Family by tulirepo (short, hurt/comfort, lan wangji finds ah-yuan on burial mounds, all the found family feels)

i want your heart to be for me by ThirtySixSaveFiles for sealdog (middle-lenght, wangxian soulmate au but set in canon, usually not a soulmate au reader but the concept is tied in super nicely into the story here)

to recollect and long for by mme_anxious (middle-length, all the found family and ah-yuan feels, hurt/comfort)

Grand Pianos Crash Together by etymologyplayground (long fic, post canon, wangxian find back together: an epic)

grief; the stages of by synonemous (sussiekitten) (long fic, the whole story in a modern setting, stuck in early 2000 wei wuxian is hilarious)

Sleeping in Paradise by daiki (middle-length fic, thematic fic, wei wuxian survives the sunshot campaign, jiang yanli lives, jin rulan’s relationship to the mysterious sleeping person at lotus cove)

What Rests on Tea by Gotcocomilk (long fic, yunmeng feels, jiang yanli & jin zixuan live, inventor!wei wuian, some great hurt/comfort)

and i will go this way by detention_notes (long fic, post-canon, wangxian write each other letters, wei wuxian travels with lesbians and harrasses friends and family on his roadtrip)

Not Just Netflix and Chill (Or Lan Zhan’s Lack of Grasp of Euphemisms) by misscam (short, modern au, lan wangji is the cutest and wei wuxian is helplessly in love)

These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou (modern au, war zone/disaster zone journalist! wei wuxian, sizhui feels!!!!!)

works in progress (they are all very, very good)

a stone to break your soul, a song to save it by rikke (long, almost finished, arranged marriage to save the yiling patriarch, yunmeng bro feels)

Death of a Ghost by Gotcocomilk (long, wei wuxian materializes as a ghost after his death, major yunmeng feels, he raises all the children)

Flowers of Blood and Bone by Sakurafubuki (AriasOfSnow) (long, vampire/vampire hunter au, a lot of action, great world building, crafty!wei wuxian, vampire!lan wangji)

I will surrender (myself to this moment in time) by Naamah_Beherit (long, post-canon, wei wuxian wakes up in gusu but has no idea how he got there, angst (with promised happy ending), lan sizhui calling wei wuxian father feels, wei wuxian gets confronted by the darkness in his life)

Lying on the Edge of a Star by Suspicious_Popsicle (long, slow-burn, wei wuxian falls into young lan wangji’s courtyard who is falling fast and deep, pity that to wei wuxian humans are but a fleeting existence)

please forgive my most passionate disruptions by pumpkinpaix (scribogenesis) (long, modern college au, wei wuxian is a stripper, lan wangji binds himself by his family’s old customs, marvelous character study, all the lan/yunmeng/wen sibling feels)

The storm comes and goes (and I keep walking) by Naamah_Beherit (long, wei wuxian survives the second sunshot campaign and roams the country as a rogue cultivator, he adopts all the children)

55. A Story-Arc That Haunts Youdefinitely the yi city arc!!!! i both love and loath it because it is just so sad and horrible but also has some stunning visuals, wei wuxian being a badass kindergartner and some big reveals for the main plot.

The Untamed / MDZS ask game

#ctlyuejie writes #fic rec #rec!#cute anon alert #ask game #long post

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biwenqing · 3 years

Note

I know jc got dunked numerous times, but does lwj ever get dunked? and if so, who's brave enough to do it?

THESE QUESTIONS just *chef kiss* so so good! Sorry for the delay with this, it ended up over twice as long as I expected (almost 3k). I had a ton of fun with it, I hope you enjoy it! Very much a “let Lan Wangji have friends agenda”. (link to series on ao3)

The alternate title: Four People Who Can, Would, and Have Dunked Lan Wangji

| 1. Wei Wuxian |

“Would you spar with me?” Lan Wangji found that the word burst forth. He had wanted to ask them for a while and just hadn’t found the right time.

Wei Ying tensed from where he sat, fiddling with some brilliant talisman design or other. An unhappy frown pinched his face, which was very much not the expression Lan Wangji wanted. Wei Wing sighed and said in a tired tone, “I won’t use my sword.”

Ah, that was the issue. Lan Wangji quickly clarified, “I was thinking I had not practiced hand to hand combat in too long.”

Wei Ying’s expression changed instantly, a knowing smile and reflection of the heat that curled in Lan Wangji’s gut. He set aside what he was working on and came to stand at Lan Wangji’s side, leaning forward into his space. “My husband has such good ideas, I know just the place!”

Wei Ying led him a ways away from Lotus Pier, around a bend in the river where there was a shore of soft sand. It was an ideal and private training ground and Lan Wangji was planning on telling Wei Ying this, but when he looked over, words failed him. Wei Ying was taking off his outer robes and layers until he was just in his underclothes.

He grinned when he caught Lan Wangji staring. “Lan Zhan, you can’t tell me we’re going to do this fully clothed.”

Lan Wangji swallowed and nodded, moving to do the same. He carefully folded his own and set them on the rock next to Wei Ying’s, pausing a moment to straighten out and fold his husband’s clothes as well, so they wouldn’t sit in a ball.

He turned to find Wei Ying watching him intently.

“Do not grow distracted,” Lan Wangji scolded in a tone probably only Wei Ying knew was teasing, fully aware of the hypocrisy in his words as he approached Wei Ying.

“And here I was thinking distraction is really what this is all about.” Wei Ying settled into a strong form, arms up, and grin wide. “My apologies, husband. I’ll focus.”

They both made what Lan Wangji later decided was a valiant effort to focus on sparring correctly. The familiar zing that had existed since their first swordfight tugged at them and Lan Wangji reveled in it. He wanted to be better than Wei Ying. He wanted to be closer to Wei Ying.

He wanted.

Any focus broke when Wei Ying used some of Lan Wangji’s distraction to pin him to the ground. They breathed together and Lan Wangji took a moment to study his husband’s face - his beautiful dark eyes, the little freckle near his bottom lip. The familiar weight of him, now heavier, healthier under the watchful eye of those who cared for him.

“Lan Zhan.” Wei Ying’s voice was almost a whisper. “Focus.”

He must have visibly frowned, because Wei Ying started to laugh, shaking them both. Lan Wangji wanted to taste the sound and moved to flip them.

The change only made Wei Ying laugh harder. “Is that how this is going to be?” Wei Ying worked to flip them back so he was laying on Lan Wangji again. They managed to do this a few more times, becoming more tangled with each one until Lan Wangji decided he preferred to feel Wei Ying’s weight on him.

Lan Wangji ran his hands up and down Wei Ying’s side before huffing in annoyance.

“What is it?” Wei Ying asked, their faces so close together now.

“Sandy,” Lan Wangji managed, trying to brush some of the roughness from Wei Ying’s clothes and his own hands.

“Hmm, a good point,” Wei Ying pulled back a bit and it was all Lan Wangji could do to stop himself from tugging his husband back close. “Shall we relocate our... sparring?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji thought that was a very good idea. His husband was very wise.

Wei Ying stood up, pulling Lan Wangji with him. But instead of going to gather their clothes and head back home, Wei Ying tugged him towards the water.

“No,” Lan Wangji said, panting his feet. His husband was very stupid.

“No, no, I know, but we need to get at least some of the sand off,” Wei Ying assured. “Then we can go home and have a bath.”

He took it all back, of course, his husband was a genius. “Alright,” he agreed and Lan Wangji let himself be led into the cool water.

Wei Ying splashed him. The grin hadn’t left his face and Lan Wangji could distract himself from other emotions by feeling content with this fact. It also meant Lan Wangji spotted when it turned mischievous as Wei Ying said, “Lan Zhan, do you think you could catch me?”

“Yes, always.” That should be obvious.

“Aw, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying protested, covering his face briefly. “You say such kind things. Now I almost feel bad for doing this.”

“Doing what?” Lan Wangji’s tipped his head to one side.

Wei Ying didn’t answer, just backed up a bit before taking a running jump towards him.

Lan Wangji did indeed catch him, but they both tumbled backward into the water with a splash and Wei Ying’s bright laughter. When they surfaced, Wei Ying apologized by peppering Lan Wangji’s face with kisses, so Lan Wangji decided not to take revenge.

This time.

| 2. Wen Qing |

Wen Qing cornered on him at the edge of a pier, eyes stormy. Lan Wangji glanced to see if she had her needles out only to find, just as alarmingly, she was gripping her sword. She was dressed mostly in purples to help her blend in with the Jiang sect, looking just as intimidating as in her Wen red.

Lan Wangji normally got along very well with her and had thought they were friends. This behavior was odd. He wanted to back up some more to get some space from her but worried he might slip right into the water. “How may I help you?” He tried asking instead.

“We need to have a talk,” Wen Qing said, back straight and looking him dead in the eye.

Lan Wangji didn’t like this eye contact. It added a feeling as if she was looking down at him despite his greater height. “Alright. We are talking.”

She pointed her sword hilt at him. “Don’t get smart with me. This is serious.”

“I am becoming aware of this.” Lan Wangji tried to keep his own grip on Bichen relaxed as he could.

“You better not hurt Wei Wuxian,” Wen Qing said, still staring him down when he focused back on her face.

Lan Wangji had a flashback to his first week on Lotus Pier. Jiang Wanyin had done something very similar to this - an obvious threat of harm if anything happened to Wei Ying. Jiang Wanyin had not liked when Lan Wangji had pointed out that it was, in fact, he who had arranged Lan Wangji’s marriage to Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji focused on the matter at hand. “I will not, would never, do something to hurt Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said and it was a promise. He had made it before and he would make it again. “Wei Ying is my equal and my partner.”

Wen Qing nodded and began to look a little less intimidating. “I trust that you will. But I wanted you to know what will happen if you don’t.”

“I am well aware,” Lan Wangji said, and even gave a little smile. “Wei Ying is very loved.” As he should be.

“Good, but don’t get cocky,” she said and then moved quickly.

Lan Wangji had lowered his guard enough that he couldn’t dodge her in time. He had enough forethought to toss Bichen on the pier before he splashed back first into the water. When he surfaced he found Wen Qing was already walking away, apparently deciding Lan Wangji had fully gotten the message.

This was certainly a different outcome to his conversation with Jiang Wanyin.

| 3. Jiang Yanli |

Besides his husband and a-Yuan, Jiang Yanli was the person Lan Wangji spent the most time with. He had found a close friend in his sister-in-law, and appreciated the times when she translated some of the behavior of her brothers.

She, along with Granny Wen, had both begun to teach Lan Wangji how to cook. It was an activity Lan Wangji found relaxing and enjoyable. Lan Wangji found that what he could do and who he could be was something he had more control over as a (married in) member of the Jiang sect than the second young master of the Gusu Lan. This was a thrilling and terrifying fact.

Jiang Yanli was one of the few people who had asked Lan Wangji, “What do you want?”

He wished to repay her kindness and tried to at every turn. During one of the afternoons they spent in quiet, shared company, Lan Wangji noticed she seemed unhappy and unable to sit still. He put away his guqin and moved across the room to her side.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked, offering his hand to help her up. Jiang Yanli gave a small smile, that Lan Wangji knew her well enough to tell was false. It was a falsehood she didn’t want pushed on though - sometimes she reminded Lan Wangji of Xichen. He was pulled from any feeling of homesickness by Jiang Yanli’s small hand briefly on his own.

“A walk sounds lovely,” Jiang Yanli murmured. “I need to clear out my thoughts.”

Together they moved from her rooms. Wei Ying was somewhere checking on vegetable growth and checking up on the Wen refugees. Sometimes Lan Wangji would go with him, other days, like today, he would go off with one or both of the Wen siblings. That was when he visited Wen refugees (no doubt cultivators) that he didn’t want Lan Wangji to have to lie to his brother about.

“Summer is going to come to a close before we know it,” Jiang Yanli commented. “I think you will like the lotus harvest.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, glancing over at her. She seemed to relax as they walked. “Do you want to talk?”

Jiang Yanli sighed, though she didn’t seem upset by his question. “It’s complicated.”

Lan Wangji assumed as much. He also was pretty sure this was a matter Jiang Yanli would not wish to talk about with either of her brothers. “Is it about the letter you received from Lanling?”

Jiang Yanli almost winced. “You noticed it?”

“I did not mean to pry,” Lan Wangji assured. “But the paper and seal are similar to what my brother used to receive.”

“Ah,” was all she said for a long time.

They continued to walk, moving from the pier and past the training grounds. There were paths throughout the nearby forest, intended for training and hunting but worked well to get some space.

“I don’t think Jin Zixuan had anything to do with the cruelty against the Wen civilians.” The words were frustrated, not in Jiang Yanli’s usually calm and thoughtful manner.

Lan Wangji could sympathize with the frustration of knowing the one you loved wasn’t being understood. “I do not believe he did either.”

Jiang Yanli grabbed his arm, looking up at him with wide eyes. She quickly let go but stayed close, halting their progress. “You don’t?”

Lan Wangji nodded, not sure what else to do to assure her. “When I was younger, often at cultivation conferences we would... both stay out of the way. I got to know him a little bit. I did not engage in many conversations, but from what I have observed, I have seen no cruelty from Jin Zixuan.” Pride and disdain, yes, but Lan Wangji had experienced the same faults.

“That’s a relief to hear,” Jiang Yanli smiled again, small but real this time. She turned back to continue walking and Lan Wangji matched her pace. “I trust your judgment.”

“I am flattered.”

“You saw a-Xian for who he is,” Jiang Yanli said. “That certainly says something to me.”

They walked for some steps more in silence. “What do you want to do?” Lan Wangji asked.

Jiang Yanli focused on the ground ahead of her. “I don’t know...”

“Do you care for Jin Zixuan?”

“Yes, but I care more for my family and the work we are doing here,” Jiang Yanli sighed again. “It doesn't seem like these two things line up.”

“You could let Jin Zixuan know that there is a space for him here,” Lan Wangji suggested. “Give him the choice.” Not making his offer for Wei Ying to come back to Gusu sound like a choice seemed to be what backfired on him. Lan Wangji could pass along what he had learned.

Jiang Yanli nodded. “That’s a good idea...”

“I am sure there would be a place for him,” Lan Wangji encouraged. “...I could talk to Wei Ying if Jin Zixuan accepts.”

Jiang Yanli laughed at that, as they turned to walk back towards home. “Yes, maybe if you broke the news to him, he’d behave.”

“He just wants you to be happy,” Lan Wangji said, though he didn’t really need to defend Wei Ying to her. “It is a sentiment shared.”

“Thank you,” Jiang Yanli said. “I’m glad to have you as a brother-in-law.”

Lan Wangji wasn’t sure what to say to that. But it warmed him to have Jiang Yanli as a friend. As a part of his family.

They spent the rest of the walk back in companionable silence until they reached where ground turned back to pier. Jiang Yanli paused then and turned to him with a smile. “You’ve become something of another brother to me,” she said.

Lan Wangji inclined his head. “I am honored.”

“Now there is something of a right of passage to being my brother, I hope you don’t mind terribly. Just a matter of formality.” Her smile had some mischief to it. “See as the eldest, I get to push you into the river.”

Lan Wangji couldn’t come up with a response fast enough to that before he was indeed pushed into the water.

| 4. Luo Qingyang |

Lotus Pier had been rebuilt larger, to accommodate the number of people who had come to call it home. Lan Wangji and Wei Ying shared rooms to one side, and nearby Granny Wen had been settled with her son, who just insisted everyone call him Uncle. A-Yuan now had a bedroom in each and seemed happy to call the entirety of the Pier home.

On the opposite side, Jiang Yanli had her rooms, with an open and airy living space that had become a communal gathering area. Near her but more towards the back were the Wen siblings.

Lan Wangji might never fully understand the man, but he had to acknowledge that Jiang Wanyin took good care of his siblings and those his siblings deemed important. Lan Wangji was sure the sect leader was trying to figure out where to put the newest addition.

Luo Qingyang had shown up ten days ago and seemed to be in no hurry to leave. She had been traveling on her own, assisting in small night hunts, since she had left the Jins. But she wanted to take a break and had “heard that Yunmeng was the place to be.”

Lan Wangji couldn’t say how true that was, but it had certainly endeared her to Jiang Wanyin. In fact, Luo Qingyang, or “Mianmian” as Wei Ying insisted on calling her, made fast friends with everyone on Lotus Pier from Granny Wen, to the new Jiang disciples, to a-Yuan.

Lan Wangji certainly found her pleasant company and someone it was easy for him to talk with.

They were walking back from the training field when she asked, “I watched Jiang Cheng toss your husband in the water this morning,”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji had been showing a-Yuan how he played the guqin, so he hadn’t witnessed this particular event. “It is usually a form of affection.”

“That’s how they show affection? By pushing people in the water?” Luo Qingyang sounded confused but intrigued. Lan Wangji could understand this feeling.

“Yes. Though it can also be a form of punishment,” Lan Wangji explained. “It can be hard to tell which it is being used as.”

She laughed. “Of course, of course. This is making me wish the rules were written down like in your sect.”

Lan Wangji understood that feeling at an almost painful level. “All rules are unwritten and flexible. Except for the one against insulting someone’s soup.” This was mostly a joke.

Luo Qingyang shook her head, chuckling some more. “Noted. So shoving someone into the water could be seen as a declaration of friendship?”

“Yes, I suppose-” That was all the warning he got before he found himself falling with a splash.

He surfaced to find Luo Qingyang laughing, nearly doubled over. It wasn’t a mean laugh... it was actually nice. She thought him a friend, not someone intimidating or cold. She peeked over at him and said, “Sorry, sorry. Here, let me help you up.”

Lan Wangji gripped her offered hand and raised his brows. Luo Qingyang realized her mistake a moment too late and let out a yelping laugh as Lan Wangji tugged her into the water as well.

#lan wangji #wei wuxian #wangxian #wen qing #jiang yanli #luo qingyang #find other parts of this au under this tag:#lwj on lotus pier #my fic #mianmian #thank you so so much for sending this in just GENIOUS galaxy brain!!!! of course lwj gets dunked...#i really had the best time writing this akjshoaiwhroaw wangxian tried to get the whole fic distracted #mianmian gets to join the lotus pier chaos family!#don't mind me sprinkling little world building of this au in...#does this au make sense? probably not #granny wen accidently adopts everyone on lotus pier... she like scold jc to go to bed #scolds*#headcanonning uncle four is her son so he helps her around the house and stuff #some of the wen cultivators that survived probably become jiang disciples or their kids do #what's going on with the jin in this au? nothing good. probably internal power struggle #don't tempt me or i will add little mxy to the lotus pier family oh don't tempt me...#i will make it a fluffy family story because the characters deserve it #even if the au basis is shaky if i start actually building it out #a talks

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mintgator · 5 years

Text

MDZS fic ideas

Things I’d love to see in Mo Doa Zu Shi fanfiction. These are my notes for things I have told myself I am not allowed to write. I’ve read...so many fics for this fandom, like most of the archive, and I’m sad that I’m pretty much at the point of rereading/waiting for updates. These ideas have been swimming around in my head that I have no time to write, so PLEASE someone take them and gimme some new words to read, I beg you. Of course, end goal should be wangxian in some way, because otherwise WHAT IS THE POINT, but I don’t have time to write these, so...here you go. Please let me know if you use them. I wanna read these, but I don’t have time to write them, so maybe someone else will want to.

*Time Travel AU in which WWX goes back and for some reason tells Madame Yu all the bullshit that’s gonna happen, so they team up and fix all the things. I just...really want Mama Yu to like WWX thanks. And dear god, LET JC BE HAPPY! I need so much more resolution on that front. Even the book did not satisfy me. I WANT MY BOYS TO GET ALONG! And I want Mama Yu to not be awful and abusive to WWX! I mean she had reasons for being salty but uh that is NOT good justification for the shit she pulled with WWX. Also, hell, let Jiang Fengmian get his core melted and have Madame Yu run the sect. WE NEED FEMALE REP.

*Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze live so WWX gets to grow up with his parents. He meets LWJ as a rogue cultivator or something idk. This would make a fun oneshot.

*LWJ’s mother lives! Honestly, I just want happy Lan-fam. Can I get that please? Just how much would it change the dynamic of the story if LWJ’s father led the sect properly and his mother wasn’t locked away in a goddamn building and actually got to spend more time with her kids? I am forever salty that we’ll never know why Mama Lan killed her hubby’s teacher or w/e. Somebody GIVE ME SOME REASONING.

*WWX gets taken in and claimed as heir by Wen Ruohan...and WWX doesn’t learn that their ways are wrong until he’s at least a teen (perhaps when sent to train at the Cloud Recesses?) and realizes how the other Sects really feel about them. Give him some convoluted morals that he has to unlearn. Make Wen Xu and Wen Chao hate him for being chosen over them. Change Wei Wuxian/Wei Ying into Wen Ying/Wen Wuxian and have it be a secret that he’s not actually a Wen. Have WWX actually not want the Wen Sect destroyed because despite how messed up its people are, not all of them are bad--mostly just those in power (it still baffles me that the other clans just DESTROYED an entire sect, like I know the Wens burned Lotus Pier but DAMN that’s cold!) Even some kind of variation where WWX influences Wen Ruohan and his children’s evil mindset would be really interesting. Otherwise, can you imagine WWX with Chenqing on the Wen side? Ouch. Also, this sticks WWX with Wen Ning and Wen Qing early on and I LOVE THEM, so there’s that.

*WWX doesn’t come back after his first death, and LWJ achieves immortality because he’s stubbornly still looking/waiting for WWX. Two centuries pass (we’re going to ignore any technological advancements and replace them with cultivation advancements or something) and LWJ ends up befriending a nice lady cultivator who falls for him, and even though he only considers her a friend, he agrees to marry her. They have 1 very stubborn gay daughter (only from consummation sex which brings up a boatload of other problems) who somehow stumbles across a reborn!WWX with all his memories--daughter is hella bitter that her father clearly does not return her mother’s affections and that he is apparently pining for someone who is so long dead that people don’t actually remember his name (ie - people remember Yiling Laozu but not that his name was Wei Wuxian). But without knowing who he is, the daughter ends up liking WWX until she finds out the truth about who he is and drama ensues. Can you tell I’ve wanted to write this one so badly? I mean I could just about draft an outline, but I HAVE TO FOCUS ON MY ORIGINAL NOVEL I’M SORRY.

*Time Travel AU in which Yanli alone gets a do-over with all the future knowledge and fixes everything just by being her amazing self. I feel like she’d be a really keen manipulator.

*The story from NHS’s pov. I wanna read all his manipulations and him putting them into place. Is there anything like this out there? Because oh my GOD I wanna know what’s going through his head sometimes. I really, really do!

*Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning - AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THIS WOULD BE AN ENTERTAINING SHIP? Just...I sort of tolerate the JC/LXC and JC/NHS pairings because they’re commonly used, but honestly, I’m not crazy about either one. However, WN is such a sweetheart and JC is such a hothead and there is so much opportunity for drama there. Also, in some cases depending on timeline...WN is, yunno, a corpse--a fixable thing if you weave in WWX’s involvement and make him and JC get along again. GIVE ME THAT. Like I don’t read much other than wangxian focused fic, but I would read the hell out of this (also you could easily balance those two pairings).

*Somewhere in the waiting gap, LWJ is given three tasks by a deity of some sort who promises to bring WWX back if he completes him...but these tasks have to UTTERLY go against LWJ’s character and completely destroy his reputation as Hanguang Jun. Honestly, this could go cracky or painfully dark.

*No idea how, but Mo Xuanyu manages to bring WWX back fully in-tact and they both get to live. WWX of course takes MXY under his wing, and together they avoid the notice of even LWJ for a lot longer than WWX did in canon. I would love to see them figuring out the whole JGY plot in the background and LWJ tailing them around just a little too late to the party each time a major event goes down until finding out in some kind of dramatic finale that WWX has been back for a while. I have yet to see characterization for MXY that I really like. Most people make him either ridiculously whiny or so much like WWX that they may as well be the same character. :/ So, uh, maybe a different approach? I mean MXY is allowed some complaints, he’s had a rough time of things, but come ON.

*Lan Wanji never finds Wen Yuan and poor widdle Shizui manages to survive into adolescence living on his own in the burial mounds...accompanied by the fragmented ghost of his Xian-gege who very slowly is pieced back together by A-Yuan, who has sort of naturally started using demonic cultivation and somehow develops a heroic reputation as a rogue cultivator. Why? Because he’s Shizui, and Shizui is SO PURE OK? Maybe he has a fascination with LWJ, even though his memories of Rich Gege are kind of fuzzy. Shizui matchmakes his two ridiculous dads. Oh and inquiry doesn’t work on WWX cuz his soul is shrouded by the resentful energy in the burial mounds.

*The Wen clan burns the Cloud Recesses to the ground around the same time WWX has lost his parents, but LWJ somehow escapes. Reportedly, everyone in GusuLan is now dead, but he somehow ends up in the same town as WWX. They meet and bond immediately. Maybe LWJ saves WWX from the dogs. Anyway, JFM never finds WWX, so he and LWJ grow up together in poverty, eventually teaching themselves cultivation and night hunting, until their fame grows so much that they catch the attention of the Wen clan (or something). Have them ridiculously dedicated to each other, already in love and thinking of themselves as cultivation partners. I want their bond to straight-up shock people. LET THEM BE SHAMELESS. LWJ would have to have a fake name and wear something other than white.

*LWJ and WWX figure out their relationship stuff a lot sooner and end up building a proper sect in the burial mounds. I want LWJ wearing WWX’s colors. I want demonic cultivation to work hand-in-hand with regular cultivation. I want them to find artifacts or books or something in the burial mounds indicating a civilization used to be there that also studied demonic cultivation, or maybe they actually find some long forgotten god/dess of demonic cultivation who empowers them in exchange for worship.

*LWJ was not whipped for protecting WWX, he was imprisoned for life, not in GusuLan, but in some godforsaken prison that is so intense no one in the clans really likes to talk about it. I want him flung into some hellprison with ghosts and demons, where only his cultivation keeps him alive (and relatively sane) for that decade-ish gap until WWX’s fragmented ghost somehow finds him. Of course, WWX realizes LWJ loves him, which triggers in WWX a want to finally come back to life. He finds a way back to the living world and rains hell upon the people who decided it was a good idea to imprison LWJ until someone finally tells him how to get to the prison. He frees LWJ and helps him recover while all the JGY stuff is going on the background. Wangxian returns to the cultivation world in time to stop that catastrophe. (Before LWJ is imprisoned, he makes LXC promise to take care of A-Yuan of course!)

*WWX gets flung into the burial mounds and embraces demonic cultivation, but realizes he has somehow bound himself to the awful place and can’t leave. Over time, he lures stragglers and refugees to the mounds, where he welcomes them to stay and live safely. Outside, the Sunshot Campaign is a failure and what remains of the sects bow in subservience to the Wen clan. Inflicted with some permanent disabilities from the war and left to run GusuLan now that his brother and uncle are dead (sorry Xichen), Lan Wanji never gets the chance to go looking for WWX. Thirteen years pass and WWX has absorbed so much resentful energy from the burial mounds that he is practically a part of it. Finally, he is able to leave, but the world he finds is much different from the one he remembers, and his health fades fast when he is outside of the mounds. Somehow, WWX figures out that demonic cultivation doesn’t damage the body/soul/temperament if somehow counterbalanced properly with a golden core--and since he doesn’t have one, he and LWJ do a soulbond thing so that their cores (WWX: demonic and LWJ: golden) balance each other. Then he can take on the Wens.

I could literally whip out ideas nonstop, but these are the big ones that have been just...beating on the walls of skull trying to get out. Of course, they don’t always account for everything, so more thought is needed. Anyway, if you write any of these, please let me know so I can read them, and of course a shoutout would be nice. c: My username on ao3 is the same as here. Enjoy~!

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #wangxian #fic #fanfic #ideas

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