Chapter Text
“Why would you need to warn me about that?” The young clan leader asked. “Wei Wuxian is always that weird, isn’t he?”
Lan Sizhui was quick to hush him, looking around as if the mere name could have summoned the Yiling Patriarch himself to their side. The three juniors had already departed from their seniors and stopped in a clearing not too far away, but private enough to hold a conversation. While normally the boy clad in white would be thrilled about his senior making an appearance, today in particular seemed to evoke some peculiar and cautious behavior from him. “Mark your words, Jin Ling,” Lan Sizhui said as he looked the boy right in his eyes. “The change is not unwelcoming, but it is unsettling. You’ll sooner want to bury your head in sand! Hear me out: may I vie for us to find a solution to this problem than hunt tonight?”
Jin Ling pursed his lips. “You! We don’t get to night hunt together often anymore with my busy schedule, and you would rather stick your nose into adults’ business than hunt with me? Leave them be! What does it have to do with me?” He put his hand on his hip, flicking his long hair behind him.
“What does it have to do with you, indeed! You don’t have to live with them,” Lan Jingyi rolled his eyes, provoking Jin Ling to lunge at him before Sizhui stopped him from pouncing. “See for yourself, then! Your uncle came tonight, didn’t he? He’s going to see this nightmare on his own, too!”
“It is not as if we won’t be doing something together,” Lan Sizhui said. “We will still be solving a mystery and working together… but it would mean a lot to me if you would join us on this endeavor, Jin Ling.”
Jin Ling wore a frown, though wide eyes and pink cheeks seemed contradictory to his tone of voice. “Fine! How bad could it be? Let’s just get this over with, and then we can actually hunt if the night’s still young.”
Quietly, the three of them stalked back to the original rendezvous point, where their seniors had seen them off. It seemed like the air was quiet for quite a bit, not even a hint of Wei Wuxian’s normally boisterous chatter as they sat sipping their tea on the outside of a restaurant’s patio.
Jiang Cheng’s stared out to the waters as if he was counting the seconds that each seemed to feel like an eternity. He kept on giving nervous glances back to his companions across the table who, surprisingly, were well behaved. Lan Sizhui noted that they were holding hands, with Lan Wangji’s hand on top and his thumb rubbing gentle circles on the back of Wei Wuxian’s hand—a sign of comfort and gentle protection. With his other hand, he lifted the teacup to his mouth but didn’t move to take a sip. Instead, he glared daggers at Jiang Cheng. A sign of disaster! Lan Wangji’s peculiar aggression was starting to show, and certainly was about to explode!
Wei Wuxian, without a glance toward his husband, gently shifted and intertwined his fingers with Lan Wangji’s. In turn, he began to give gentle comforting rubs with the pad of his thumb to the taller man. Lan Wangji seemed to calm down at this, turning his gaze fully to his beloved and allowing himself to drink in the sight instead. Wei Wuxian downed a cup of tea in one go, before putting it down to pour himself another.
“It’s not a shot. Haven’t you learned how to drink tea at all, living with the Lans?” Jiang Cheng finally bit. The words came quickly, almost as if he could not bear the silence anymore.
Wei Wuxian paused and then nodded. “I’ll do so properly,” he quietly corrected himself, and instead began to delicately sip the tea. This, however, he did with a loud slurp. He put his teacup down and looked directly at Jiang Cheng with a blank face. Lan Sizhui stared with his mouth agape. Even when he seemed to have adopted the ideal mannerisms of a Lan Sect disciple, he also remained to be as petty and menacing as he usually was. Slowly, Lan Sizhui turned to look at Jin Ling. Easily, Jin Ling looked pale in the face, frozen in his spot, eyes wide as if he’d miss something if he blinked.
Jiang Cheng looked as if he was about to explode, his neck flushing with anger. “What is wrong with you today? We’ve sat for nearly 15 minutes like this, and you haven’t even spoken a word? What, are you scared now? Haven’t you anything to say?”
Lan Wangji opened his mouth to speak, but Wei Wuxian hushed him by bumping his shoulder with his own. A pout seemed to form on his face, but he closed his mouth and cast his eyes back down to his tea.
“And you, what’s with this?” Jiang Cheng turned to Lan Wangji. “You’ve been glaring at me since we’ve met. Do you have a death wish? Certainly, you do if you’re sitting there with my brother, hand in hand! Don’t think I don’t see that. I told you to stop being so filthy, at least not here in Yunmeng. Can’t you save it for when you get back to Gusu?”
The grip on Lan Wangji’s hand loosened slightly. As if given permission, Lan Wangji muttered, “If you call this filthy, then you really don’t want to see what we do back in Gusu.”
Jiang Cheng froze. Not only did Lan Wangji speak more words than Wei Wuxian had all night, he did so only to essentially call Jiang Cheng…. prudish, perhaps. “I do not need to know that!” he raged and he stood up. “Haven’t you an ounce of dignity?”
Lan Wangji smiled, and Jiang Cheng was absolutely stunned, a shiver running up his spine as he haphazardly stepped back and bumped the table. Wei Wuxian stabilized the table with a firm hand placed on it, waiting for the wobbling items on it to settle. Lan Wangji continued, “He is my husband. Can I not hold his hand?” Even with Wei Wuxian’s blank face, a blush clearly bloomed across it.
Jiang Cheng groaned, covering his face and turning away from them. “I knew coming out tonight would not be worth the trouble.” He started to gather his belongings, grabbing his sword. “None of this will work out. It’s best if we just—“
“Jiang Cheng.” Wei Wuxian finally said. Despite his anger, Jiang Cheng looked at Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian stood up and motioned to Lan Wangji with an open palm. Lan Wangji pulled a small box from his sleeve and gave it to Wei Wuxian with a roll of his eyes directed at Jiang Cheng. “For you.”
Jiang Cheng frowned and cautiously accepted the box. “What’s this?”
“A gift. For you.” Wei Wuxian repeated.
“Why didn’t you give this to me when we met each other? Why wait?” He said. He inspected the box fervently as if it could have been trapped in some way.
Wei Wuxian was silent, uncharacteristically thinking of what to say. Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. “Courage.” Wei Wuxian looked down, and motioned toward the box, indicating he should open it. “…to make it worth the trouble.”
Jiang Cheng blinked. “Courage?” he asked, and then poked a finger on Wei Wuxian’s chest. “The hell do you mean, ‘courage’? Use your words. I know you have them. You don’t need to put on this shy act for anyone. You’re not usually one who explains yourself, and yet when you do, you can’t even say more than one word?”
Lan Wangji batted the accusing finger away, earning a growl from Jiang Cheng. “He was working up the courage to give it to you,” the man translated faithfully for his husband. “You are his brother. How could you not understand that?” He wrapped a protective arm around Wei Wuxian’s shoulder.
Wei Wuxian looked down. Jiang Cheng froze in his motions once again. He looked at Lan Wangji with wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows. Every time that Lan Wangji spoke, it was jarring—it was loud, disturbing, almost a little bit rude, and far too wordy. He worked with Lan Wangji before and it wasn’t an awful or a loud and annoying experience, but he could not begin to imagine what sort of nightmare that Wei Wuxian put him through to incite such a change in his personality.
Wei Wuxian, the most shameless man he knew, needed to spend 20 minutes working up courage? As if. This was the same man who shouted in front of his brother and his husband’s brother and his husband’s brother’s sworn brother that he wanted to sleep with his husband. This was the same man who thought it would be fun to flirt with a girl to get one of her perfume pouches. Wei Wuxian needed courage to give a simple gift to Jiang Cheng?
Jiang Cheng pursed his lips and looked down at the little box in his hand that Wei Wuxian seemed to glance nervously at. Jiang Cheng opened the top, not caring about the ribbon that was torn as he did so. Inside sat a simple set of pins that one would typically use to keep their hair up in a bun. At the end of one was the elegant motif of a howling wolf, and the other was the shape of a crescent moon.
Jiang Cheng’s shoulders relaxed as he stared at the gift, and then back at Wei Wuxian. To his surprise, Lan Wangji spoke up, “We spent the day at the market to pick this out. I picked the moon. Wei Ying picked…”
“…the dog.” Wei Wuxian finished his sentence. “For you,” he reiterated.
Jiang Cheng wanted to roll his eyes as Wei Wuxian’s visual literacy was apparently so low that he couldn’t even discern a dog from a wolf, but he couldn’t find himself breaking his eyes away from the small gift. It wasn’t even useful. Jiang Cheng shook his head, his clutch on the box tightening slightly, but not enough to crush the box. He replaced the lid. “…thank you, you two.”
Lan Wangji nodded with a smile, while Wei Wuxian nodded with his blank face, sitting back down and pulling himself a bit closer to his spouse. Jiang Cheng also took a seat once more and took another moment to drink tea.
The silence washed over the patio once more. Wei Wuxian seemed to be more comfortable now, snuggling closer to Lan Wangji, who in return seemed to lean his full weight on Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng turned his eyes away rather than trying to get them to stop.
After another bout of awkward silence (It was only awkward for Jiang Cheng), he spoke up again. “Well? Don’t you have anything else to say?”
“No,” the answer that came from Wei Wuxian’s mouth surprised Jiang Cheng. “Do you?”
Jiang Cheng fiddled with the box in his hand, before gently laying it on the table. “No.” He said. Wei Wuxian nodded. Jiang Cheng glanced toward his brother, concerned but bearing little visible resentment.
Jin Ling, from the bushes, stared at the scene in confusion. “What’s this? This is probably the most civil I’ve seen Uncle around Wei Wuxian,” he whispered. He leaned forward as if it would get him a better view.
Lan Jingyi also leaned forward. “You’re right. Maybe them acting like this isn’t so bad after all. Sizhui, are you really sure it’s something we should even try to fix?”
Lan Sizhui seemed upset and frowned. “What are you saying? You really prefer this? Of course we should fix it; we don’t know what negative side-effects that this might have on Senior Wei and HanGuang-Jun should this weird spell be prolonged.” Sizhui stated, though his two companions seemed to simply raise eyebrows at him. “I don’t want Senior Wei to be anyone but himself.”
Jin Ling chuckled. “Maybe he’d be better like this though! Look at how well Uncle and Wei Wuxian are getting along.”
“It won’t be better like this!” Lan Sizhui had never been so passionate about an opinion before. “I’m certain that this sort of personality is unbefitting of HanGuang-Jun especially, and we cannot allow such a thing to be known to the public!”
“Who’s there?”
The harsh call of Jiang Cheng’s voice caused Lan Sizhui to fall forward, consequently bringing both Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling forward to the ground as well with an oof. The three of them tumbled out of the bushes with twigs in their hair, looking up with wide eyes.
“My personality is unbefitting to the public, Sizhui?” The accused walked over, looming over the juniors. Sizhui felt himself shrinking, and the other two barred their hands up in defense.
“HanGuang-Jun! Sizhui didn’t mean it that way!” Lan Jingyi attempted to defend his friend.
Wei Wuxian hummed, “Lan Zhan has behaved well tonight,” he said, only a touch of astonishment to his voice. For Sizhui to appear and accuse his husband of something so peculiar… “Sizhui, are you unwell?”
Sizhui was red in the face as he finally stood up, dragging his companions up with him. “It is you two who are unwell!! Have you seen yourselves? Sect Leader Jiang, do they not strike you as odd?”
“Sizhui,” Wei Wuxian cooed, walking over gracefully and laying a gentle hand on top of his head. “Calm down. Explain.”
Wei Wuxian ruffled his locks before promptly smoothing them out. Lan Sizhui nearly wailed, though agreed to explain without protest. “It’s weird,” he muttered. “I just want Senior Wei and HanGuang-Jun back to normal.”
Everyone seemed to pause at such an earnest confession from their normally most-composed disciple. Sizhui looked down, bringing up a sleeve to cover his face.
Wei Wuxian pulled Lan Sizhui into a tight hug. A hug which Lan Sizhui noted felt the same as it always did.
“Sizhui,” Lan Wangji said softly. “Change is something that’s quite inevitable. Things will constantly change, and you cannot expect that anything will go back to what was familiar and comfortable to you.” Lan Sizhui gripped his hands on Wei Wuxian’s shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jiang Cheng, who attentively listened to Lan Wangji with wide eyes, his shoulders drooping. Lan Wangji continued, “But you can learn how to be comfortable with new things… or old things that present themselves in new ways.”
“I am still here,” Wei Wuxian said. He nuzzled his nose into Sizhui’s hair, closing his eyes. “Still me.”
Sizhui, as if finally remembering he was in the company of his two friends as well as his friend’s uncle, pushed Wei Wuxian gently to coax him into letting go. Wei Wuxian gave Sizhui a final tight squeeze before letting his son free. Sizhui was appropriately red faced and embarrassed at his own behavior in front of his friends. Wei Wuxian, however, had little remorse hugging Sizhui so tight in front of everyone. And still, with no remorse, he floated back to Lan Wangji and connected hands with him.
Jiang Cheng rubbed his neck as he averted his eyes. He looked at Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji standing together with a frown before releasing a deep sigh and letting the angle of his eyebrows soften. As he looked back, he made eye contact with Lan Sizhui who only smiled at him. Feeling anger bubbling inside of him, he summoned Zidian to his hand.
“So you three decided to spy on us instead? Why invite us to a night hunt if you don’t plan on bringing back prey of any worthy size?” He growled, and immediately Jin Ling clutched onto his friends’ arms and started to pull them backwards. “Do you need me to baby you? To walk with you hand-in-hand? Go! And don’t come back until you’ve gotten some worthy prey or I’ll break all of your legs!”
The juniors scurried away in a rush, Jin Ling frantically dragging his Lan friends away from the scene without so much as a formal goodbye.
“It goes for you, too,” Lan Wangji’s voice was softer than before, but still audible to the retreating juniors.
“Oh, shut up,” Jiang Cheng responded harshly. “I liked it better when you were quiet.”
“I like it when he’s loud.” Wei Wuxian said. All the juniors could hear after that was the sound of Jiang Cheng shouting and Zidian whipping poor Wei Wuxian’s back.