Chapter Text
Look up, look down, I linger on
I feel as if here on this lake there is another heaven
Summer engulfs them in smothering weather. Wind clings to their skin like a transparent coating, while sun shines so bright it's blinding and scorching. Time always feels the longest during this part of the year, stretching into slow, sweltering days that seem to know no end, and the heat feels a little bit unbearable. But perhaps Wei Wuxian doesn’t really mind, because although the lotuses of their home are always blooming, summer just somehow makes them seem brighter, livelier.
On his side, leaning to one of the pillars and forgetting the book on his lap, Jiang Cheng is slowly drifting away in a lazy afternoon nap. His cheeks still flush slightly, the remains of their running along the docks all the way to the pavilion. Wei Wuxian contemplates a dozen ways to wake him up, but then abandons them when he decides that the day is a little too peaceful for a mischief. So he pulls out his flute instead, brings it to his lips, and plays a quiet idle tune.
The blue of the world above their head is clear, the pond below their feet is lush and green. Wei Wuxian gives breath to the notes under his fingers and wishes he can see them pouring out, racing with fishes in the water, leaping with frogs on lotus leaves. It’s truly a home like no other and perhaps he won’t mind staying like this a little bit more, or even a little bit of forever.
“You’re getting very good at that.”
Wei Wuxian looks up, a little surprised not because Jiang Cheng is now fully awake, but because a praise from him only comes once in a blue moon. Seeing his raised eyebrows, Jiang Cheng points to the flute, prompting Wei Wuxian to play it louder, happier. When the song finishes, he utters, “Thanks?”
“You sounded horrible when you first started playing, though,” Jiang Cheng adds as he stretches his back, “really, even the fishes here would swim away.”
“Well, at least that means I’ve improved a lot,” twirling his flute, Wei Wuxian quips back, “unlike somebody who still sounds like they’re having constipation every time they play.”
He can see the other boy rolling his eyes. “Lend me that flute and I’ll let you hear how well I can actually play.”
“No, your room isn’t that far so go fetch your own flute,” Wei Wuxian grins, “or maybe you just secretly want an indirect kiss with me… don’t you, Jiang Cheng?.”
His laugh explodes when Jiang Cheng swats the back of his head, but Wei Wuxian finds it amusing that the boy doesn’t scoot off or shove him away when he leans in to rest his head on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. The summer tunic the boy has on feels soft against Wei Wuxian's temple. “But don’t worry, if it’s Jiang Cheng, I don’t mind giving you whatever you want.”
“How about you shut up?”
“That’s one difficult request, though, how about a kiss as an encouragement?”
Wei Wuxian thinks another smack is coming when the other slips an arm behind his back, but Jiang Cheng only pulls him into a more comfortable position, before he arranges the both of them to lean back on the pillar, much like how he had been earlier. Ignoring him, Jiang Cheng yawns. “So noisy… and I was having such a nice dream too.”
“Yeah?” he mutters. “What was it about?”
“Something that didn’t have you in it.”
“All right. You’re asking for it.”
Wei Wuxian retaliates by tickling Jiang Cheng’s sides, and the two grapple and laugh until they’re breathless. Summer is a time when the day doesn’t feel like it’s moving, when colors are prettier and dreams are longer, when smiles are a little bit warmer and hearts a little bit closer.
In the end, they lie side by side at the center of the pavilion, too strangled by the heat, too sleepy to move, but still Wei Wuxian doesn’t mind, still he doesn’t mind at all.
Closing his eyes and slowly taken away by sleep, he dreams of a home in eternal summer.