Chapter Text
On Lan Wangji’s first date of his life, he had been running on the strongest tea available, less than thirty minutes of sleep in two days and adrenaline at having shown up too early. The boy who had asked him out had been sweet, assuring him that they could be nervous wrecks together. But in the end, they broke up after two months. Lan Wangji had been too focused on his work and against going to parties that involved drugs and the boy was growing into an addict, no matter how much Lan Wangji tried to help him.
On his first date ever since he got a job at the university, Lan Wangji feels just as exhausted. And he was pretty sure that all his dates before this will not have a four-year-old tagging along with them. No one had been free to babysit A-Yuan that weekend as his uncle had already left and Lan Xichen had a rain check. Nie Huaisang and the Wen siblings were busy with their lives. The only other person he could ask was Wei Wuxian himself. So, Lan Wangji called the man and asked if they should reschedule. But Wei Wuxian had only laughed brightly and asked him to bring A-Yuan along. “The more the merrier” is his claim.
Lan Wangji had woken up early to stress-clean the apartment and made noodles from scratch for lunch. Panic and excitement sat heavy in his stomach as he finished up his work in the kitchen just in time for A-Yuan to wake up. then he was swept up in taking care of the child. After breakfast, Lan Wangji took a shower and attempted to style his hair but even a curler wasn’t good enough to do much more than curling his ends lightly. A-Yuan helped him choose the hair accessories and earrings once again. Lan Wangji put some fancy hair clips with bunnies on A-Yuan’s. The boy picked a knitted sweater over the red shirt he was going to wear and Lan Wangji helped him into his pink onesie paired with his tiny sneakers.
They stood in front of the mirror as Lan Wangji battled against the swell of pride and fondness for where they had come.
“Baba going to cry?” A-Yuan asked, pouting in worry.
“No. Baba is happy.”
“If Baba is happy then A-Yuan is happy!” The boy cheers. “Wei-gege is also happy?”
“Mn. I hope so.”
Lan Wangji is picking up his wallet and keys to stuff into the baby bag for A-Yuan when the boy runs to the door. A-Yuan has always been more perspective to doorbells than Lan Wangji for some reason. Wei Wuxian was here.
Heartbeat kicking up again, Lan Wangji fussed with his clothes and hair once again before taking the bag and slinging it over his shoulder. A-Yuan had already pulled open the door and was chatting with Wei Wuxian in his arms. both of them looked up with equally bright grins when Lan Wangji drew closer, making his breath stutter.
“Lan Zhan! Hi,” Wei Wuxian breathed. Eyes drawing appreciatingly over Lan Wangji’s frame as a blush bloomed over his cheeks. “You look beautiful.”
Face heating as blood pumped through his ears, Lan Wangji smiled shyly, “Thank you. You look very pretty, too, Wei Ying.”
“Wei-gege is pretty!” Lan Yuan seconds.
“Oho? Sizhui is very pretty too. I like your bunny hair clips.”
The boy giggled. “Thanks, gege.”
“Such a well-mannered boy. You Baba is doing so good.” Wei Wuxian winks at him as he lets A-Yuan down on his feet. “Gentlemen, shall we?”
Lan Wangji nods, stepping out and closing the door behind them. A-Yuan demands to hold both their hands as they walk outside. Wei Wuxian laughs as he jokingly lifts the boy up only for him to squeal in delight and order them to do it again and again until he tires of it. By the time, they exit the building, Lan Wangji can feel all his anxiety seep out. His date was one of the kindest men who loved his kid before he came into the picture.
Their date spot was an amusement park. A-Yuan was beyond delighted, tugging at their hands like an impatient puppy to urge them closer to the attractions. Sighing at the boy’s obvious excitement—Wei Wuxian not being any less gleeful with childish giddiness gleaming through him—Lan Wangji gently guided them towards a carousel.
As he watched A-Yuan be strapped into the horse safely, Wei Wuxian slithered closer until their fingers bumped against each other. Turning, Lan Wangji smiled at the man before linking their fingers together. Wei Wuxian beamed back, leaning forward to peck his cheek. Grin turned to smirk at Lan Wangji’s obvious blush.
“Payback,” Wei Wuxian whispered against the backdrop of children’s squeals. He squeezed their fingers together. He said, “I actually planned to take us to a movie. But I selected horror so I could pretend to be scared and climb all over you.”
Looking at the man’s unrepentant grin, Lan Wangji laughed softly. “Shameless.”
“But,” Wei Wuxian muttered, his wide beam softening into a satisfied simile as he looked at A-Yuan’s figure bobbing up and down on a plastic horse as he waved his hands at them. “I’m glad we came here. Would not miss this for anything.”
Breath stuttering, Lan Wangji looked between his date—and hopefully, future boyfriend—and his son. Without a word, he took his phone out and snapped a decent, slightly blurry, photo of A-Yuan’s beaming face, highlighted by the carousel’s flashy lights. Then he took a shot of Wei Wuxian’s lovely side profile just before the man turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
“For the photo album,” Lan Wangji said.
Wei Wuxian batted his eyes, drawing him closer with their linked hands. “Am I to be in it, too?”
“Yes,” Lan Wangji breathed. “You’re family. A-Yuan likes you.”
“Oh? Does A-Yuan’s Baba like me too?”
“Yes, very much so.”
Eyes growing bright with delight, Wei Wuxian leaned closer until their noses brushed. “Aya, Lan Zhan, you shouldn’t say things like that. My heart can’t take it.”
“Mn.” Lan Wangji kisses his nose, chuckling when Wei Wuxian wrinkles it. When he blushes his freckles come alive. “Will make Wei Ying flustered.”
Wei Wuxian pouted. “Why? Because my Lan Zhan is mean to me? So rude!”
“No.” Lan Wangji felt his heart gallop in his chest at being called Wei Wuxian’s. “Because Wei Ying is cute when he blushes.”
“Ew!” A-Yuan’s voice shouts and they both startle apart, fingers still linked, as they turn to find A-Yuan right before them. Watching judgementally. “Baba, up!”
Over A-Yuan’s head, as Lan Wangji straightens up, he catches Wei Wuxian’s amused grin. “He’s jealous that I’m stealing his Baba away,” he says.
Rolling his eyes and pinching A-Yuan’s pouting face lightly, Lan Wangji says, “You both don’t have to fight for me. Baba will always put you first, A-Yuan.” It was a warning to Wei Wuxian too who just looked admiring and happy. Lan Wangji’s heart skips a beat.
They continue rotating through food stalls that leave A-Yuan sighing happily, rides that make Lan Wangji breathless not because of their intensity but because of how beautiful Wei Wuxian looks when he has fun in them, photo-booths that Wei Wuxian somehow finds—they even get to take one without A-Yuan, where Wei Wuxian kisses Lan Wangji’s cheek right before A-Yuan jumps into their lap for the next one where Wei Wuxian is laughing at A-Yuan’s pouting but Lan Wangji is smiling softly at the two goofballs (it is his favourite highlight of the date). Just as A-Yuan starts to grow tired towards four in the evening, Wei Wuxian spots a game that gives away stuffed toys to those who loop more than three rings into the bottles.
“I’m gonna get that bunny for A-Yuan,” Wei Wuxian exclaims, already untangling their hands to go towards the stall. “Any request?”
Lan Wangji draws closer to the nearly empty stall—save for a couple who looks near to giving up—to peruse through the options. A black bunny, looking like the pair of white ones that Wei Wuxian wanted for A-Yuan, but smaller, beckons his attention. He points to it and Wei Wuxian nods determinedly.
The shopkeeper looks disbelieving at Wei Wuxian’s demand to get both bunnies if he manages to loop all five bottles in one try. Still, he takes the money and does a sarcastic go-for-it motion. Grinning wickedly, Wei Wuxian takes the rings and readies himself. Lan Wangji holds A-Yuan a bit tighter to remind him that he is with a child and has to control himself before he does something as reckless as kissing Wei Wuxian onto the ground in the middle of a busy fair.
A-Yuan cheers tiredly as Wei Wuxian swing the first ring and claps right next to Lan Wangji’s ear when it lands smoothly over the bottle’s neck. The shopkeeper’s eyes nearly jump out of his skull as the next four rings without a hitch. Wei Wuxian laughs at A-Yuan’s delight and whatever he sees in Lan Wangji’s face—thinly veiled desire, probably—as he takes the bunnies.
Handing over the white one to A-Yuan as he takes the boy into his arms, relieving Lan Wangji’s tiring arms, Wei Wuxian gives the next to Lan Wangji for holding. The white bunny is about the size of A-Yuan’s torso and partly obscures Wei Wuxian’s face. Lan Wangji sees the black bunny with a red ribbon on its ears, almost covering both his palms and feels warmth blossom inside him. Looking up, he watches Wei Wuxian giving him covert glances in between amusing A-Yuan’s stories that he was making up for the white bunny.
“Let’s go back to the car,” Lan Wangji says, voice thick with feelings. “A-Yuan is almost asleep.”
“” I'm not,” A-Yuan mumbles before yawning loudly. “Baba, home?”
“Yes, baobei.” Lan Wangji stuffs both bunnies under his arm and hooks the other around Wei Wuxian’s waist. Leaning in to whisper against the man’s ear, he says, “Thank you for the bunnies. Will you stay over tonight?”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes darkened. “You really liked it, huh?” he says breathily, trying to sound teasing. Lan Wangji heard the hidden question: you like me that much, hm?
“Yes, I do.”
A-Yuan had fallen asleep on his kid's seat by the time they reached home. The ride had been filled with electricity that sizzled when Lan Wangji’s fingers brushed Wei Wuxian’s thigh when he reached to shift the gear. The smiles and heated looks that the man kept sending Lan Wangji did not help the matter. It was a miracle—fuelled by the presence of his sleeping son—that they reached Lan Wangji’s apartment in one piece.
After the boy was settled in his bed with his stuffed elephant substituting Lan Wangji, he slipped out of the room to find Wei Wuxian looking at the recently hung photos on the living room wall. Lan Xichen had come over two weeks ago and helped Lan Wangji select pictures of their family and A-Yuan to hand on the wall. They had even decided to ask Wen Qing for a photo of A-Yuan’s parents and Wen popo to be added to the wall. Wen Ning had sneaked in baby photos of the boy too.
“He is adorable,” Wei Wuxian says, smiling at Lan Wangji when he comes to stand beside him. Their shoulders press together as Wei Wuxian says, “I really am glad they chose you to take care of A-Yuan. He is, well, he is doing so well. Lan Zhan, you really are the best.”
Breathing against the tide of affection threatening to overwhelm him, Lan Wangji links their hands. “Wei Ying is the best, too.”
Wei Wuxian chuckles, raising their linked hands to press kisses against Lan Wangji’s knuckles. “Lan Zhan, you really will steal my heart at this rate. And I won’t even ask it back.”
Looking at the man whose bright grin is almost strong enough to overshadow the sincerity and vulnerability in his eyes, Lan Wangji has a sort of epiphany. This is it. Wei Ying is it for me.
“Good,” Lan Wangji says, his voice suddenly gruff with his emotions. Wei Wuxian’s eyes soften as he understands. Pushing closer until their chests press together. both their heartbeats in sync with their fast paces. Gently laying a kiss on Wei Wuxian’s forehead, Lan Wangji whispers against it, “I might as well not ask mine back from you.”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian mutters, voice all wobbly. “Kiss me.”
They move to Lan Wangji’s bedroom against whose door Lan Wangji is shoved and kissed thoroughly. It starts out astonishingly desperate with hands that wander and slip under clothes. Hips rutting against each other and hair knotting together. lips, tongue and teeth taking and giving. Then Wei Wuxian breaks it and the next time he presses in it is heartbreakingly gentle. Lan Wangji feels at once like he is being broken and then remade within the same breath. Head cradled and lips venerated. Skin spliced and spread out to be loved.
They fall into the bed as Wei Wuxian pushes Lan Wangji deeper into the mattress where he continues to steal his breath and thoughts from his mind. They kiss and kiss until breathing has become too essential to forego. With shared laughter, Wei Wuxian whispers ‘later’ against his chin before tucking his head under it.
As he waits for their breaths to settle, Lan Wangji cradles his fingers through Wei Wuxian’s hair and thinks that there is nothing more he wants from his life other than the happiness of the precious ones in his life, half of those who were right under this roof. He heard Wei Wuxian’s breath deepening as he entered sleep. Kissed his head as Lan Wangji rolled them to cuddle on their sides. Kisses his forehead as he lets his eyes close. Before entering sleep, Lan Wangji prayed for the first time in ten years. Wished to keep this little piece of heaven to himself for a long, long time.
Six Years After
It was snowing lightly in Beijing as Lan Wangji left the university. He had to pick up A-Yuan from school, he reminded himself, as he entered the car. Then promptly chided himself that A-Yuan was now Lan Sizhui. His ten-year-old son had become too embarrassed to be called A-Yuan in front of his friends. Even privately, he did not like anyone other than Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji call him that. Lan Xichen had laughed when he told him about calling the boy Sizhui from now on before he sniffled into his wife’s shoulder about little boys growing up much too fast. That night, Lan Wangji himself had cried silent tears into Wei Wuxian’s belly at the tender reality of a future that was approaching too fast for him. His fiancé had comforted him that A-Yuan was growing up and that maybe one day, he might learn to tolerate their familial affections.
As the school drew closer, he spotted Lan Sizhui waiting outside, chatting and laughing with his friends. Lan Wangji parked nearby and waited for his son to trot over with a bright smile. “Baba!” he greeted as he pulled open the passenger-side door and slid into the seat. “How was work?”
“Good. How was school?”
“Great! A new transfer student came today, and I made friends with her. Her name is Wang Hua and she likes Star Wars too!” Lan Sizhui continues to recount his day and Lan Wangji hums or asks questions at the appropriate times as they continue driving home.
They make one stop to buy Wei Wuxian’s favourite mooncakes for his private promotion celebrations and Lan Sizhui makes his puppy-eyes at Lan Wangji until he relents and buys him some shortcakes too. “Your A-Die has given you his sweet tooth, hasn’t he?”
Lan Sizhui grins. “You’ll get it too one day, Baba.”
Sighing in mock disbelief, Lan Wangji shakes his head and ruffles his son’s hair. “You both are going to make me die young like this. You’ll get cholesterol if you eat too much!”
“A-Die is still alive, isn’t he?”
“That’s because Wei Ying runs around like a wound-up toy at his workplace. All I do is sit on a desk or pace in the classrooms.”
“You and A-Die go for jogs every day.” Lan Sizhui laughs. “I have seen your Choco chip collection that you hid from A-Die, Baba!”
Lan Wangji narrows his eyes. “I won’t tell Baba it was you who stained his favourite shirt if you don’t tell him about this.”
Lan Sizhui nods seriously, shaking their hands together with the gravity of a businessman which is ruined when he grins boyishly brightly as they enter their car again. “Deal! Let’s go home, Baba!”
Wei Wuxian cooks dinner that night and makes conversation as they eat. Despite it being his promotion that they are celebrating, Wei Wuxian is the one entertaining them with his flute and music selections, plying Lan Sizhui with desserts and Lan Wangji with his favourite tea after dinner while they watch a movie he set up—a family favourite. Wei Wuxian is also the one who lifts their no-longer-light son into his arms to be put to bed when he falls asleep halfway through the movie. As Lan Wangji switches off the TV and cleans up, he waits for Wei Wuxian to join him by the kitchen table. There have been more than enough, less-than-subtle signals for Lan Wangji to catch on that his fiancé had something on his mind that he wanted to make into reality.
A glass of chamomile tea keeps him company when Wei Wuxian rejoins him. Sliding onto his lap with a playful smile as if they were still young and spirited. He links his fingers behind Lan Wangji’s head and brings their lips together. Lan Wangji almost forgets his mission to question Wei Wuxian’s intentions as he gets lost in the gentle rhythm of their kisses and the simmering desire underneath it until Wei Wuxian pulls away with a nip.
“You have something to say,” Lan Wangji whispers, running his fingers down Wei Wuxian’s spine in a way he knows his fiancé likes.
Wei Wuxian hums, fingers tightening around Lan Wangji’s shoulders. “Yes.” He leans down to kiss him some more before separating with obvious reluctance.
“Later,” Lan Wangji promises, kissing his clothed shoulder. “Now, Wei Ying, how can I help you?”
Wei Wuxian laughs. “Lan Zhan,” he teases, “so formal?”
“Mn.” Their noses brush and Lan Wangji has to hold himself back from pressing Wei Wuxian against the table and kissing him senseless.
Suddenly serious, Wei Wuxian pulls back until he can cup Lan Wangji’s face to force their eyes together. “Lan Zhan,” he says as seriously as he had been when he kneeled, almost two years ago, to ask for his hand in marriage. Even though A-Yuan had started calling him A-Die way before that they both knew they were it for each other.
“Yes, my Wei Ying?”
“The law won’t change any time soon,” Wei Wuxian says, smiling lightly, “and I can’t—won’t—wait for it to call you my husband. Officially.”
“Wei Ying. Are you…?” Lan Wangji can feel his eyes prickle with all the love he feels for the man.
“Yes. Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, will you do me the honour of becoming your husband, officially?”
“This summer,” Lan Wangji says, voice thick with emotions, “Let us get married.”
“I’m glad we think the same,” Wei Wuxian laughs. “Because I already booked our tickets to Australia. It would have been a pain to cancel it, but I shouldn’t have been wor—”
Lan Wangji kisses his brilliant, stupid, gorgeous to-be husband shut. His heart could nearly explode with the happiness he feels for this man and the family they’ve managed to keep. Speaking of…
“Ew!” Lan Sizhui’s deadpan voice breaks them apart. “What are we celebrating?”
They turn to find the half-asleep boy, rubbing at his eyes with a smile, on his way to them. Lan Wangji smiles at their son and says, “You Baba and A-Die are going to get married in Australia this summer.”
Lan Sizhui pauses, looking between the two of them with surprise and then pure, undaunted delight. He throws himself against the adults and crows, “I’m so happy! We have to tell Uncle Xichen and Grand-Uncle Qiren and Qing-jie and Ning-ge and—wait, can my friend Jingyi come too? Aunty Yanli and Uncle Zixuan are also coming, so that means…”
Wei Wuxian grins at Lan Wangji over their rambling boy’s head as if to say see? We made this. I’m so proud of us.
“I love you both,” Lan Wangji says, kissing Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui’s heads.
“Aw,” Wei Wuxian coos. “I love you both.”
Lan Sizhui giggles. “I love Baba and A-Die too.”
As far as stories went, Lan Wangji’s was perfect.