Chapter Text
Of course, the first thing Wei WuXian had done away from Madam Yu's eyes was to get into trouble. That alone was enough to fuel Shui Cheng's headache for a week.
But the headache was nothing compared to the way his stomach had seemed to fall between his ankles when Lan WangJi had turned towards them from his seat in the classroom. Shui Cheng had had to make an immense effort not to spend the entire gift ceremony staring at the other boy.
"This humble rogue cultivator would like to know to whom he should apologise for his rudeness."
The guy's smile did not betray his previous embarrassment, bowing with cupped hands and a grace that was making all the girls behind them sigh, sleeves fluttering perfectly symmetrical.
"Lan Huan, courtesy Lan XiChen," he replied, his smiling eyes shining like amber under the torchlight that seemed determined to flatter all the features of that face carved in jade.
Fuck it, swallowed Shui Cheng harshly, a man had no right to be so handsome.
The boy knew logically that he might meet a relative of his Lan, but no amount of mental preparation was enough in front of Lan WangJi. Gods, looking at him Shui Cheng could almost imagine what Lan XiChen had been like at that age, the pale gold eyes and ice that seemed to irradiate from Lan WangJi as the only real difference between the two.
Then, in the middle of the ceremony, two of his shidi had given vent to their huge mouths to gossip about Yao Ge and it had slipped into the background. And after that he had thrown himself into his lessons, climbing the rankings at tests and effectively shutting up anyone who made even a casual comment about the Jiang Clan losing credibility by welcoming rogue cultivators left and right.
"Poor guys, I almost feel sorry for them," chuckled Wei WuXian at the sour expressions of their classmates in front of the last test's grading papers. Shui Cheng's name this time was above Wei WuXian's by one point and at the same level as Lan WangJi, themselves below Meng Yao's.
"They don't seem to understand what hit them," offered Meng Yao with a quiet smile, who could now safely call himself one of Lan Qiren's favourite students. On the other hand, Wei WuXian had literally kidnapped his older brother and elected the older guy as their head of logistics for pranks. Shui Cheng told them because Nie HuaiSang was the one adding the most water to the metaphorical mill of Wei Ying's mind while Shui Cheng listed all the flaws in the plan and Meng Yao dispensed suggestions that effectively solved the problem. But in the end it was always Wei WuXian who happily stretched his punishment in the library with WangJi as if the purpose of it all, other than to raise Lan Qiren's blood pressure, was to make young Lan's eyes converge on him with all their icy fury.
"He's cute in a way, like a kid pulling the pigtails on the girl he likes," chuckled Meng Yao in front of a lively Wei WuXian who dramatically waved at them to run skipping behind Lan WangJi towards the library.
Shui Cheng had rolled his eyes.
Now, his sixth sense for cut-sleeves was not defective unlike Wei WuXian's, and it was funny at first, but the blatant density of his shixiong was beginning to annoy him. It was made worse by the fact that Wei WuXian was the kind of person who didn't realise the effect he had on others.
The intensity with which Lan WangJi's eyes followed Wei WuXian back from the library in recent times definitely said something.
Shui Cheng could definitely understand the feeling. If he didn't understand that Wei WuXian was simply a person who was intense in showing his affection, he might have been heartbroken. But the real point was another. Wei WuXian acted with Lan WangJi as if he were flirting with a blushing maiden on the riverbank, talking so much about the other guy that one evening Shui Cheng in their shared room, with the windows and door covered with silencing talismans and contraband wine between them, couldn't help but blurt out, "Why don't you just fuck already?"
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Wei WuXian choked on her wine, coughing loudly as Nie HuaiSang flailed a little faster and Meng Yao smiled with his eyes closed.
"W. . .What?" he stammered, the warmth of the wine finally seeming to reach his face. It wasn't the first time Shui Cheng joked about marrying into the Lan Clan, but that time seemed far from a joke and too close to serious.
And for some unknown reason, this sent Wei WuXian into a panic, who felt as if he had to justify himself after one of his transgressions in front of Madam Yu.
Shui Cheng sniffed sarcastically. "Are you seriously asking?"
"Really shidi, I don't understand what you mean."
"Oh really? I think you do," Shui Cheng raised a critical eyebrow, tilting his head to one side. The silver tassel pearl he wore on his ear brushed lightly against his shoulder in a way that would fuel Wei Ying's sketchbook for weeks.
Wei WuXian gulped down a large gulp of wine, suddenly feeling parched. Shui Cheng, however, would not stop staring at him and he had almost run out of alcohol to keep his lips busy with.
Meng Yao coughed almost too elegantly into his sleeve, breaking the strange tension in the air.
"What A-Cheng means is that perhaps Wei-shidi's behaviour could be as say. . .misunderstood."
Now Wei WuXian was confused. "Misunderstood? And what would there be to misunderstand?"
"I don't know," Shui Cheng said insinuatingly. "Maybe it's the way you cling to his sleeves like a fainting maiden . . ."
"Or the way you say his birth name like you've known each other for years," offered Nie HuaiSang, the traitor, without looking him in the eye.
"Or perhaps the number of times Wei-shidi praises Lan Er-Gongzi's abilities and appearance in a day," added Meng Yao imperturbably as if there was nothing strange in the world.
"It's just an objective judgement," Wei Ying replied as a strange nervousness, the origin of which he didn't understand, knotted his stomach. "Lan Zhan is objectively the most handsome cultivator of our generation."
There was absolutely nothing wrong with being objective.
Right?
Shui Cheng tsked. "Hardly, I know someone more handsome."
"Now Shui-shidi you just sound jealous," Wei WuXian chuckled, hoping to turn the conversation elsewhere.
"Actually," Meng Yao smiled as if he knew something terribly funny. "I think A-Cheng might be slightly more experienced than Wei-shidi in this."
Shui Cheng threw his head back in laughter, exposing the pale column of his throat to the candlelight. "Definitely! At least I've already given my first kiss, to a Lan no less!"
"Now, what do you know. . .wait," the meaning of the words suddenly sank in Wei WuXian. "Where exactly did you meet a Lan woman? We've been here for months and I haven't glimpsed a single one."
His three friends exchanged a complicit look, as if they knew something obscure to Wei WuXian. He had a bad feeling about this.
Shui Cheng smiled amusedly at him. "Who says it was a woman?"