Archive of Our Own

Wei Wuxian smiled at the couple seated before him on the other side of his desk. “How can I help the two of you today?”

The woman, who was sat facing him on his right, scoffed and rolled her eyes in annoyance. “We’re here for the exact same reason as all your other clients are.” When Wei Wuxian only sat smiling with his hands resting on top of his desk, trying his best to hold back his frustration with the woman’s rude tone. The woman brazenly raised her right hand and pointed to the thin thread of pinkish light that was strung from her little finger. “I want you to cut this stupid string of fate so I no longer have to be associated with this man!”

The man sat beside her didn’t say anything, his eyes fixated on his own light pink thread that was tied around his left little finger. This particular thread in question was what was known as the Red Thread of Fate. However, to the average person’s eye, it wasn’t quite red or a thread. Rather it was a thin rope of light that was a light pinkish hue that was almost transparent, but was more commonly referred to as the thread of fate. As to why it was referred to both being red and a thread when it looked neither was because its true form was hidden to all people who didn’t have the ability to manipulate it.

Wei Wuxian gestured to the light pink rope of light that joined the pair together. “May I?”

The couple outstretched each of their hands that were connected by the thread for Wei Wuxian to inspect. This thread was unable to be touched by most people, just a beam of light that could pass through solid objects, but once Wei Wuxian touched it with gentle hands, the pinkish light faded away until a thin, red string that looked akin to a length of yarn appeared in its stead. The couple audibly gasped at the sight of it, neither having seen their string’s original form. The ability to reveal the true form of the string of fate was something that was reserved only for people who could manipulate the string’s form.

You see, every child is born with the gift of a thread that links two people who are destined to be together by their little fingers. This thread is supposed to make finding your one, true soulmate,  in this world an easy endeavour. On the oldest child of a soulmate pairing, the string is attached on their right little finger, whereas it is attached to the left little finger of the younger soulmate. The thread is something everyone is born with but only forms a connection with another person when the youngest of the soulmates is born. The string of light is always suspended in the air and will never touch the ground.

Wei Wuxian was different, however. When the gods bestowed the red thread of fate as a gift to mortals, there also came a gift given to a select few to be given the ability to manipulate this string. Wei Wuxian was a descendant from a long line of people who were given the ability to sever the connection of soulmates. Using a pair of special, silver scissors passed down from generation to generation, Wei Wuxian had the ability to cut the thread and end a soulmate relationship. For centuries his family has been making a business from their ability to sever the threads.

However, while he had an incredible ability to change fate as it were, his ability also came with a curse. Everyone child born in his family with this gift was devoid of their own string of fate. Both of his fingers were as bare as the day he was born and will remain so until the day he dies. This curse was placed on his family because many generations back one man used his power to sever the soulmate ties of several people without their consent for his own amusement. In punishment of his ancestor’s mischief, all descendants of his line had to suffer without a string of their own.

Wei Wuxian carefully examined the couple’s thread. It was threadbare and pieces of it were frayed in places indicating that their relationship wasn’t progressing well. Wei Wuxian raised his gaze to eye the pair of them. The older soulmate, the woman, was dressed in an immaculate pantsuit and he long hair was combed back into a tight, sleek bun. She had a fierce and commanding aura to her. In comparison her soulmate was a small, meek looking man who seemed to be the type who didn’t say anything other than what was necessary.

He couldn’t help but sigh at the sight of this couple who were each vastly different than the other. This looked like a tough case.

Wei Wuxian let go of the thread and it immediately transformed back into its normal form as a rope of pink light. He steepled his fingers together and considered how he was going to approach this situation. “Why is it exactly you want to sever your soulmate connection?,” Wei Wuxian asked.

The woman looked affronted by the question and sputtered in indignation. “I hardly think that is concern of yours!” She waved her right hand around again like a mad woman. “Shouldn’t you just do your job and cut the damn thing?”

Already feeling fed up, Wei Wuxian stared at the woman with an unimpressed expression until she finally put her hand down. Wei Wuxian turned to her soulmate and tried to offer him a kind smile. “Under law, before I cut your strings I need a statement as to why you are cutting the string.” The woman, now realising her foolishness turned her gaze away in embarrassment. “Do you mind telling me the story, sir?”

The man cleared his throat and meekly nodded his head in agreement. “We met two weeks ago, but due to our clashing natures, Zhang Mingzhue decided - I mean, we decided that it would be best not to try and pursue a relationship together,” the man said, unable to hold Wei Wuxian’s gaze any longer and turned away.

Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow in disbelief and turned his gaze back to the woman. “You have only known each other for two weeks and already want your string cut?”

The woman’s cheeks flamed red. “I work in a very competitive corporate business and I am expected to attend a number of social gatherings to better my prospects of a promotion.” She raised her hand to gesture to the man sitting on her right. “And this man here is simply not suited for that! I need a strong minded man who can support me in my endeavour of a promotion.”

Wei Wuxian sighed and slumped back into his chair as he considered the pair before him. It seemed that more and more people nowadays were disregarding the purpose of soulmate bond and were taking their fate for granted. This was mostly because people believed that with the assistance of people like Wei Wuxian, they could alter their destiny any way they see fit. But most people who seek out for fixes like this didn’t really understand the worth of a soulmate bond in the first place. It wasn’t Wei Wuxian’s job to point this out for them. He simply had to document the reasons why couples have decided to sever their string, file the necessary paperwork and with the pair of scissors he had inherited from his mother, cut the string of fate. However, Wei Wuxian was bad at his job.

“Do you realise that you only ever get one soulmate, right?,” Wei Wuxian questioned and the pair of them flinched.

“B-but we can get our strings reattached to a new person!,” the woman insisted.

Wei Wuxian wanted to sigh in exasperation once again. He pinched the bridge of his nose and willed himself to find the patience he needed to deal with this woman. “Your string won’t just accept being connected to any person’s string. Sure you can try and retie it with another person, but that bond may be rejected and come undone. I have met some people who have tried retying the string to another’s and it just not working. I’ve even had a couple who had their string cut come in for it to be connected once again but it just didn’t work.” When Wei Wuxian met the woman’s eyes it seemed that she now had a sense of fear in them. Wei Wuxian wanted to smirk. He really wished that people could learn to respect the gift they have been given.

“I don’t want to do this,” the man suddenly said, drawing the attention of both Wei Wuxian and his soulmate.

“What?,” the woman asked in confusion.

Gathering his courage and turning to meet her gaze for the first time since they had stepped into Wei Wuxian’s office, he spoke once again. “I don’t want to sever our string. We haven’t even given this thing a shot yet and you already want to call it quits? Our strings are connected for some reason, right? Maybe we just need to try and figure out what that reason is.”

The woman didn’t respond and instead sat silently as she considered her soulmate’s words. Wei Wuxian smiled. “You know, you tend to find that for soulmates who are polar opposites like the two of you, your weaknesses tend to be the other’s strengths. I think the two of you could learn something from each other.” Wei Wuxian fished a business card from a drawer in his desk and handed it over to the man. “My sister does some counselling for soulmates that are having some troubles here in this clinic. Try and give her counselling a go. It may help you decide where to go from here. And if, let’s say in two months time, you really can’t see a future with each other, come back here and I will cut the string for you. How does that sound?”

The soulmate couple could only nod their heads in agreement and thanked Wei Wuxian for his time. He escorted them out of the building, wishing them well and hoping he wouldn’t be seeing them as his clients again in the future.

“Why can’t you just do your job properly for once,” Jiang Cheng gruffly asked from behind the receptionist desk once Wei Wuxian’s clients were gone.

Wei Wuxian propped both his elbows on top of the desk and placed his chin in the cradle of his hands. “We aren’t losing customers, Jiang Cheng. I always make sure to refer them to come back to seek counselling from Shijie!,” he said as he flashed Jiang Cheng one of his award winning smiles. Jiang Cheng just grumbled and went back to organising appointments for the clients who were coming in tomorrow.

Wei Wuxian had been working at this business for a number of years now. He had inherited the business from his mother who worked as the person who previously severed the strings of fate. She, and also his father, were now retired from their jobs and touring the world on vacation. Wanting to expand the business from one that just offered the service of cutting strings, Wei Wuxian also employed his two good friends; Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli. Their parents were very good friends with one another and their three children all considered each other close enough to be siblings. Wei Wuxian always called Jiang Yanli his elder sister and Jiang Cheng his little brother. And in good fashion of siblings, Jiang Yanli called Wei Wuxian her baby brother and Jiang Cheng referred to him as shitface.

Jiang Cheng was employed as the manager and receptionist of the clinic. He did everything from manage the payroll to receive and book appointments. Basically, he did everything that Wei Wuxian was terrible at managing. Jiang Yanli was the clinic’s counsellor who helped coach soulmates through relationship problems and help them decide the best course of action to take in their relationship with each other. Most of Wei Wuxian’s clients who he refused to sever their string for went to seek counselling from her. And finally, besides Wei Wuxian, there was the employee who connected broken threads together, who also just happened to be Wei Wuxian boyfriend as well.

“Thank you so much!,” a woman said as she exited the office next to Wei Wuxian’s. Her hand was interlocked with another woman’s and Wei Wuxian smiled when he saw that these two people now had a connecting thread.

“Ah! Congratulations you two,” Wei Wuxian said as he came to greet the new happy soulmates. After asking if it was okay, Wei Wuxian picked up the thread and examined the knot that now joined two separated strings together. “I see that Lan Wangji did an excellent job on tying the strings together! I doubt that this will be able to come undone even if you had two of the world’s strongest men play tug of war with it!”

Both of the women giggled in glee and Wei Wuxian beamed at their happiness. Lan Wangji emerged from his office then and said farewell to the couple, reminding them to come back for a check up on their string in three month’s time to ensure its integrity. When the pair of women, now a pair of soulmates, left the store Wei Wuxian rounded on Lan Wangji.

“You managed to do it even though you had doubts! Well done, Lan Wangji! Here,” he lent up and planted a firm kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. “A reward for all your good work!”

The man’s face remained expressionless but Wei Wuxian could tell that he was happy from having done a successful job. It wasn’t every day couples walked out of Lan Wangji’s office with smiling faces. Even though Lan Wangji had the ability to join separated strings, it didn’t always work and fate could reject a pairing that was not of its own creation.

Because, like Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji had the ability to manipulate the red string of fate and his ability was passed down from his ancestors. Unlike Wei Wuxian, however, was the properties of his ability; where Wei Wuxian could destroy, Lan Wangji could create.

And also, unlike Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji had a red string of fate.

The red string was about two metres long and was always wrapped around his right arm to stop it from dragging behind him. Because, while he may had a string, it was not attached to anyone. Many people believed that the lack of a soulmate at birth for people who could reconnect strings was a blessing as they had free reign to choose whomever they liked, but Wei Wuxian thought of it as a curse much like his own. The reason for Lan Wangji’s, and all other people who could reconnect string the strings of fate, lack of a soulmate went back to a punishment given by the gods. According to what Lan Wangji had told Wei Wuxian, his ancestor had linked himself to one of the people whose string was cut by Wei Wuxian’s mischievous ancestor. Lan Wangji’s ancestor’s soulmate had already died, so he took the opportunity to bind himself to the most beautiful woman in town who was a daughter to a rich lord. To the eyes of the gods, his greed deserved punishment, as the lord’s daughter’s original soulmate was left without a partner. The gods, cruel in their ways, made it so that all of his descendants to come would not have a soulmate at the end of their string

Not only this, but if a person in Lan Wangji’s family line attempted to connect their string with someone else’s that was broken, the knot would always come undone, thus making a soulmate bond impossible. Wei Wuxian figured it was cruel to give people the ability to form soulmate connections, but unable to forge their own.

Despite these troubles however, Lan Wangji enjoyed his job. He mostly helped people whose soulmates had passed or people who had undergone a string severance find a soulmate connection with another. He was always upset when fate wouldn’t allow for two strings to be tied together though. Sure, two people did not need to have their strings tied together for them to be in love and live a happy life, but a soulmate connection was seen as something greater than marriage and many people sought out to establish a soulmate connection for this reason. It was a symbol to themselves, and the world, that these two people belonged to each other.

Jiang Cheng huffed in annoyance. “Lan Wangji has a greater success rate than you at this point, Wei Wuxian. Can you tell him, Lan Wangji, that he needs to worry less about the reason why people are seeking out to sever their strings and do more cutting,” Jiang Cheng said as he made a cutting motion with his fingers. Wei Wuxian’s cheeks puffed up like an annoyed puffer-fish and his hands went to his hips, prepared to argue against Jiang Cheng for the umpteenth time again about this subject when Lan Wangji cut in for him.

“No.”

“What?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“The less severed strings, the better,” Lan Wangji answered.

Wei Wuxian, proud of the fact that Lan Wangji agreed with him, latched onto his arm, hugging it close as he stuck his tongue out to Jiang Cheng. “See! Lan Wangji agrees with me!”

Jiang Cheng just scowled in response and ignored the pair, turning back to arranging appointments on his computer monitor. Wei Wuxian watched as Jiang Cheng’s fingers angrily flew over the keyboard, now taking his frustrations out on doing his job well, and his eyes zeroed in to Jiang Cheng’s own string of fate. Jiang Cheng may tell him off for not doing his job correctly, but Wei Wuxian’s actions in refusing service to many people was driven by motives other than money. Simply, having the least amount of people who were out there without soulmate bonds was for the best in Wei Wuxian’s eyes. Because as much as Jiang Cheng may try to sympathise with Wei Wuxian, he just didn’t get it.

He didn’t experience the overwhelming loneliness that came with the knowledge that there was no perfect match out there for you. Wei Wuxian often wished he wasn’t born into his family with this special ability and rather wished he was just a normal person with a normal soulmate out there somewhere. Instead he was cursed to a life unable to ever be joined by connection that most people sought out for.

It had always been a touchy subject for him. During his schooling years, he was bullied for having no thread of fate and the bullying only drove him to feel even more lonely. He dealt with this as best he could, mostly by threatening to sever his bullies’ threads if they continued to pick on him, but the hole in his heart was never filled. Sure, his mother had found happiness in his father, a man whose soulmate had died when he was only seven years old, but Wei Wuxian became sad when he saw that their hands were unlinked.

“Wei Wuxian,” Lan Wangji’s voice suddenly called out to him.

“Hmm?,” Wei Wuxian hummed and then suddenly remembered he was still clutching Lan Wangji’s arm. “Oh! Sorry, Lan Wangji, I forgot I was still hugging you.” He quickly let go of Lan Wangji’s arm and turned his face away, hopeful that the man didn’t catch how his cheeks had turned ruddy in a blush. With is back still turned to Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian asked, “you got any more appointments today?”

“Not until two,” Lan Wangji answered.

Wei Wuxian looked at the clock hung over the couch in the waiting room and saw it was a quarter past one. Now that his cheeks didn’t feel hot anymore, Wei Wuxian felt comfortable turning back to look at Lan Wangji. “I don’t have an appointment until two thirty. Do you maybe want to have a cup of tea together?”

“Mnnn.”

“Great!,” Wei Wuxian cheered. “Jiang Cheng, we will just be in the break room!” Jiang Cheng ignored him, still focused on doing his work so Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji just retreated into the break room. Wei Wuxian immediately turned the kettle on and placed two tea bags into his and Lan Wangji’s favourite mugs. His was black and had a cute bunny face whereas Lan Wangji’s was a matching mug in white. Wei Wuxian had gotten them after he accidentally smashed Lan Wangji’s previous favourite mug. Once the kettle was boiled and the tea was ready, he brought the two mugs to the table where Lan Wangji was seated and sat down opposite the man.

Wei Wuxian took a long draw of his tea, unaffected by the burning heat of it and smiled at Lan Wangji. “So, how is that case you are having trouble with? The one with the short guy with the long hair and his really tall girlfriend? I noticed that their strings still failed to attach last week when they came in. Have you given them some more bonding exercises to increase their compatibility with each other?”

Lan Wangji had been dealing with a couple who wished to connect their strings together but wasn’t having much success. Even after an initial attempt to connect strings failed, it wasn’t impossible for them be connected after a second or third try. Oftentimes couples who weren’t successful in becoming soulmates were sent away with the recommendation to become closer and get to know one another more intimately. No one knew the science behind this method, but for some couples it worked well. It was really the only thing left to do if their strings refused to bind together.

As Lan Wangji told Wei Wuxian how he was having difficulties with some of his latest clients, Wei Wuxian just sat and listened, asking appropriate questions when necessary. He loved moments like this, when it was just them and they could talk about the stresses of their jobs, or what they thought of the latest blockbuster movie, or how delicious the bread was at the new bakery down the road. Lan Wangji was mostly a quiet man, but after they had started dating he had found that Lan Wangji was comfortable carrying long conversations with him about anything and everything.

And Wei Wuxian was so grateful for it. He loved the low timbre of Lan Wangji’s voice, the way his eyes lit up when talking about his family and the purposeful movements he made in doing anything. Wei Wuxian was in love with Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian looked down at his own hands resting atop the table and stared at his two bare fingers. But of course, even if he wanted it, he didn’t have a string to tie to Lan Wangji’s. Unlike the millions of soulmate threads out there in the world, there was nothing tying them together forever. Wei Wuxian grew sad once again.

It was eight o’clock at night and Wei Wuxian was sat alone in the completely dark break room, his head sunk into his hands. He had just one of the worst days ever. Three separate couples had come in today, all looking to sever their bonds and for two of the couples, he was unable to convince them otherwise. He had to cut three different soulmate strings today and it broke his soul that little bit more each time he done so.

The first couple that had come in had been together for a few months before realising their career and family goals were completely different and would have lead them to be apart more often than not, which was something neither wanted. Wei Wuxian tried to talk them out of it, but they had clearly discussed it thoroughly and decided it was better for the both of them to move on with their own separate lives. With the second couple that came in, both people had cheated on each other multiple times and blamed each other for the faults in their relationship. When Wei Wuxian had inspected their string he saw it completely frayed and had suffered extensive damage to it. Over the screaming, he didn’t really try to counsel them to try and salvage the relationship and just cut the string.

Finally, with the third couple, well there was only one person present. The man had come in with a court order giving Wei Wuxian permission to sever the connection without the consent of both parties. He was a man who had suffered from domestic abuse by his soulmate partner and Wei Wuxian had no hesitations to sever that connection. Even though he didn’t like the ability he had, he enjoyed helping people who needed to get away from people who were abusing them as he knew he was changing someone’s life for the better. But while he had no regrets in severing that particular case, he was rather sad that terrible people who wanted to beat their partner were allowed soulmates, but he wasn’t allowed one because an ancestor seven hundred years back decided it was a fun prank to cut people’s threads of fate for no good reason.

The world just wasn’t a good place and Wei Wuxian wished that could be allowed to have the same privilege that so many people disregarded or abused.

Suddenly, Wei Wuxian’s world was blindingly bright and he looked up to see that the lights had been turned on. He turned around in fright, sure that he was the only one in the clinic, but was calmed when he saw that it was only Lan Wangji in the doorway and not a burglar. As Lan Wangji was staring back at him, a tear slipped down Wei Wuxian’s cheek and he hurried to wipe it away, scared that Lan Wangji saw that.

“You scared me,” Wei Wuxian said trying to divert Lan Wangji’s attention from his face that undoubtedly looked as pathetic as he felt. He tried to flash the man his usual smile, but it trembled at the corners and gave away his sadness.

“Jiang Cheng said you hadn’t come home for dinner and was worried,” Lan Wangji said, still standing in the doorway of the break room.

Wei Wuxian came to the startling realisation that he was supposed to have dinner with the Jiang family tonight. He fished out his phone, that he always put on silent when working, and saw that he had several missed calls from Jiang Cheng, obviously wanting to know where Wei Wuxian was. He wanted to hit himself in the head. Because he was so caught up in his sadness, he completely forgot.“Whoops,” was all Wei Wuxian could say in response.

“Why are you still here?,” Lan Wangji asked, helping himself to a seat opposite Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian just fiddled with his fingers, unsure if he wanted to tell Lan Wangji about this particular trouble or not. He usually had no hesitation to disclose anything that upset him to Lan Wangji, but he was scared of hurting his boyfriend’s feelings. Here he was, crying alone in a dark room because he didn’t have a soulmate when he had the most caring boyfriend in the whole world. Honestly, he should do away with wanting a thread of his own seeing as fate wanted to deal him such a terrible set of cards, but he knew deep down inside, he will forever be yearning for that connection with another person. He has heard how other people talk about their soulmates like they are the sunshine in their lives and how they couldn’t bare to be without them. For even one moment, Wei Wuxian wished to know what that felt like.

Lan Wangji reached over and enveloped Wei Wuxian’s fiddling fingers with his own hands and gave them a comforting squeeze. Wei Wuxian raised his gaze to meet Lan Wangji’s and couldn’t help but return the smile that his boyfriend was offering him. But then again, he thought, Lan Wangji was in the same boat as him and he knew that his boyfriend was always willing to offer an ear to Wei Wuxian’s troubles.

“It’s just that today had been a hard day. Three different severances and two of those couples weren’t in the nicest situations either. It’s just that it has made me question why even terrible people in this world get to have soulmates but because of my ancestor’s foolishness, I have to be punished in not having a soulmate myself.” Wei Wuxian’s eyes flickered to Lan Wangji’s thread that was wrapped around his forearm. “You know what I am talking about, right?”

Lan Wangji grasped the end of this string and rolled it in between his fingers. “I think of the same thing too often.”

Wei Wuxian perked up a little. “You do?” It was the first time they had really talked about their lack of soulmates. At first Wei Wuxian was somewhat glad that Lan Wangji didn’t have a soulmate, someone that fate had designed him to be committed to, so they were free to date each other. But as time passed, he came to realise that maybe they were just two sad people looking for comfort in one another. They weren’t destined to be with each other after all.

“Wei Wuxian,” Lan Wangji suddenly said and gripped his boyfriend’s hand tighter. Wei Wuxian waited for him to continue but Lan Wangji couldn’t obviously too scared to continue on. He just waited for Lan Wangji though and rubbed soothing circles onto the top of his boyfriend’s hand in attempt to help comfort him. When Lan Wangji finally gathered himself he continued. “There’s something I want to try with you.”

“And what’s that?,” Wei Wuxian asked as he cocked his head to the side in question.

Lan Wangji firmly met his boyfriend’s eyes. “I want to try forming a soulmate connection with you.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t know what to say. “Lan Wangji…” was all he managed to get out before he was cut off.

“There’s a rumour in my family that it’s not entirely impossible for someone in my family line to form a connection with someone. I don’t know if these rumours are true or not but it has been bothering me for a while. I didn’t want to bring it up before because I was scared what will happen to us if it fails… but I want to try Wei Wuxian. Even if there was even a chance that I could be your soulmate, then I want to try.” Lan Wangji’s eyes became slightly wet with unshed tears and Wei Wuxian reached out with a hand to catch the tears on his thumb before they could run down his boyfriend’s face. They stared into each other’s eyes for a time, their breathing the only sound that filled the silence. Eventually Wei Wuxian nodded his head.

“Okay. Let’s try it.”

Lan Wangji gathered up Wei Wuxian’s left hand in his own and brought it to his lips to press a tender kiss to it. He then began to carefully unwind his thread from around his forearm and lay it on top of the table. When the thread was completely unwound, Wei Wuxian presented his boyfriend his left hand, much like how a women would to a man asking for her hand in marriage, and Lan Wangji took it graciously with a shaking hand.

“Wait,” Wei Wuxian suddenly said causing Lan Wangji to jerk in shock. “Can you promise me that no matter what happens, we will still work through this?”

Lan Wangji lent forward over the table and planted a soft kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. “Always.”

“Then let’s get down to business and make me your soulmate,” Wei Wuxian said with a small smile.

With experienced hands, Lan Wangji tied a careful but secure knot onto Wei Wuxian’s left little finger using the end of his thread. Usually he would tie two ends of thread together so a knot would be formed in the middle, but as Wei Wuxian lacked a thread he tried connecting it directly to his finger. When he was done, it looked identical to the know fixing the thread to Lan Wangji’s own finger. Wei Wuxian watched and waited for the string to transform into the pink rope of light that it always did when it a new soulmate connection was formed, but no matter how long they waited, it didn’t turn pink.

A single tear slipped down Wei Wuxian cheek and Lan Wangji was quick to round the table and fold Wei Wuxian against his chest in a hug. “I was really hoping it would work,” Wei Wuxian choked out on a sob. Lan Wangji hummed in agreement and rocked them back and forth as he comforted both himself and his boyfriend.

It took Wei Wuxian a while to calm down and when he did Lan Wangji helped him clean his face of all the tears that that streamed down his face by using a tissue in his pocket. When his boyfriend still wouldn’t smile, Lan Wangji began to pepper his face with dozens of kisses until Wei Wuxian giggled. “It’s okay, Wei Wuxian.”

Wei Wuxian smiled sadly. “I just wished it would have worked. I want nothing more than to be linked to you by the string of fate.”

Lan Wangji pressed a tender kiss to Wei Wuxian’s temple. “I know.” Lan Wangji helped him stand and hugged him once more. “But not matter what, in my mind, our bond is stronger than any soulmate thread could provide for us.”

Wei Wuxian pressed his face against Lan Wangji’s chest. “Thank you for being there for me.”

“The same goes to you,” he whispered into Wei Wuxian’s hair. “Let’s get out of here and grab some dinner, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Suddenly reminded of the used tissue still in his hand Lan Wangji walked across the room to the garbage can to dispose of it but Wei Wuxian’s shocked gasp made him turn around in fright.

“It’s still connected!,” Wei Wuxian shouted in delight.

“What?” Lan Wangji looked down to the thread that was still looped around each other their fingers. A soulmate thread grew and shrunk to accommodate the distance between two soulmates and of course an unsuccessful thread would come undone when a couple walked away from each other. But to both of their surprise, the thread grew with the distance that Lan Wangji took to reach the garbage can.

Wei Wuxian’s hand snapped to cover his mouth as a series of giggled erupted from him. Lan Wangji was still too shocked to react. “We’re idiots!”

“Huh?”

“Whenever we touch a soulmate thread, it sheds its outer light barrier to reveal the thread. Of course it isn’t going to form a into a pink light because we are always constantly touching it!” Unable to contain his happiness, Wei Wuxian ran to Lan Wangji’s side and enveloped him in a hug.

Still in shock, Lan Wangji just wrapped his arms back around Wei Wuxian. They stood there for who knows how long, both overwhelmed in happiness.

His entire life, Wei Wuxian always dreamed having a thread tied around his finger, and now that his dream came true, he was quite disbelieving of the fact. “We’re soulmates, Lan Wangji!,” Wei Wuxian cheered.

“We’re soulmates,” Lan Wangji echoed in a pleased voice with a gleaming smile as he hugged his soulmate tighter.