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“What are you doing now?” Jiang Cheng’s voice held a note of irritation as he watched his brother frantically running around their tiny, shared apartment. Wei Ying, the messiest man he knew, was scrupulously fixing the placement of the pillows on the couch. He stepped back, examined his handiwork, and groaned audibly before going back to rearrange the pillows once more.
Wei Ying looked at him with sharp eyes, a determination he rarely saw unless Wei Ying was on a deadline that he put off until the day before said deadline. Much like he was doing now, Jiang Cheng figured. “What are you doing?” Wei Ying retorted. “Help me clean up, too!”
“Why?” Jiang Cheng leaned against the doorframe with narrowed eyes instead. “You could have started cleaning earlier if you needed to be done by a certain time. Why should I have to do your dirty work?”
“Because--! Because!” Wei Ying groaned and turned back to the couch, giving up on reasoning with Jiang Cheng. Deciding that the pillow placement was okay, he went to make sure that all the picture frames were straight.
Jiang Yanli, who Wei Ying would consider the local saint, emerged from the kitchen. She had some rubber gloves on and was carrying a spray bottle of cleaning solution and tossed some used paper towels in the trash. “A-Cheng,” she said, her voice as gentle as ever, “Lan Zhan is coming over today.”
“My point stands.” Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “What are you so worried about anyway? You never clean up for guests. When Huaisang comes over, you never even get up to answer the door.”
Jiang Yanli simply giggled. Meanwhile, Wei Ying had gone to the mirror, fixing his hair, combing a loose strand behind his ear before deciding to muss it up a bit. He beamed at the look, turning side to side to make sure he still looked cute at any angle. He even leaned in, checking to see if his eyeliner needed any last-minute re-doing. “But Lan Zhan is so neat and clean. His apartment is like one of those minimalist apartments you see in those magazines! What would he think if he saw our apartment like this?”
“He’d see you for the monster you truly are. You’re like the rubbish god of Xian Le, but you earned that title by being a shitty person who makes his siblings clean up after him,” Jiang Cheng said sarcastically. Wei Ying ran over and tackled him to the floor. Jiang Cheng struggled but was pulled into a headlock.
“Alright, you two,” Jiang Yanli chimed, and her brothers’ fight ceased as they stood up properly in unison. “A-Ying. What do you want for dinner today?”
Wei Ying’s answer was immediate, “Lotus and rib soup!” He sang. “Lan Zhan has to have shijie’s famous soup! Oh—wait. Shijie, Lan Zhan is a vegetarian. He also doesn’t really like spicy things… well, maybe it’s just because he hasn’t had shijie’s cooking, but the only spicy thing he had at his place was the Yiling Patriarch noodles. Which, I mean, isn’t even that spicy. Anyway… maybe, can you make a pot without the ribs?”
Jiang Yanli laughed. “Okay, okay. You pay such attention to what he likes, don’t you?” Glee seemed to push her cheeks upwards as she watched Wei Ying’s face grow redder with embarrassment. “I’ll make a mild version without the ribs… some tofu will probably do as a substitute then…”
“Thank you Shijie!” Wei Ying smiled his brilliant smile.
His phone buzzed once. Wei Ying fished it out of his pocket. He didn’t even bother opening the message to view the DM on his twitter because a quick look at the notification told him everything he needed to know:
Lan Zhan
Here.
Wei Ying stuffed his phone in his pocket and dashed to the front door. He checked himself in the mirror again before swinging it open a little too enthusiastically, almost blowing his hair out of place with the gust of wind resulting from his fast motion. “Lan Zhan, you’re here!”
Lan Zhan, as usual, looked striking as ever. Even on an outing just to Wei Ying’s apartment, he wore formal clothing. Wei Ying’s eyes tracked down before slowly tracking back up. Shiny black dress shoes, black slacks. He wore a plain white button-up shirt. What really made the outfit look so good, other than being on Lan Zhan’s body, was the light blue vest fitted nicely over the white shirt. It had patterns of clouds embroidered onto its collar—yet another motif of the Lan clan in their shared favorite series. His zither was in a case slung casually over his shoulder, which he carried with ease despite the size and weight of the instrument.
Wei Ying couldn’t help himself, a wide grin spreading across his face. “You look amazing! Do you have to do this every time? Now I feel like I’ve underdressed!”
Lan Zhan greeted him with a quick bow of his head before also taking a look at the man in front of him. “Wei Ying’s clothes are cute, too,” he said, his ears tinted pink. Wei Ying took a cursory glance at himself as if to make sure his clothes actually were cute. Naturally, he tried to wear something that he thought might impress Lan Zhan. He wore gray plaid pants that cut off just above the ankles and a red tank top. On top of that, he had a black half-zipped bunny-eared hoodie with a puffball of a tail at its back. His hoodie hung loosely off his arms and showed off one tantalizing bare shoulder. At his feet, he wore white ankle socks with light blue clouds, also clearly resembling the Lan Clan motif.
With a coy grin, he spun on his heels to allow the man into his humble apartment. Lan Zhan politely closed the door behind him as he entered the room, and removed his shoes at the front before stepping any further in.
“You’ve met Jiang Cheng,” Wei Ying motioned to his brother, who simply waved hello at Lan Zhan. “This is Shijie!” He motioned to her with both arms, as if presenting her proudly.
Lan Zhan bowed to her. “Hello, Shijie,” he said. “Thank you for allowing me over.”
She laughed at the absurdity of being called Shijie by someone who was not one of her brothers, but could only figure that Wei Ying had almost exclusively referred to her as such around Lan Zhan that he may not actually know her name. “You can just call me Yanli,” she said with a smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Lan Zhan. Our A-Ying has told us a lot about you.”
“He hasn’t stopped talking about you since MXTX con, really,” Jiang Cheng said monotonously.
Lan Zhan’s eyebrows shot upwards in surprise, his ears a bright shade of pink, as he turned to look at Wei Ying inquisitively. Wei Ying looked almost proud of himself, flashing him a wide grin. With that, Lan Zhan turned his face away again, muttering, “Shameless.”
Wei Ying flung himself at Lan Zhan, wrapping his arms around one of Lan Zhan’s and hugging it closely. “Are you ready to do our duet? I have the whole recording station set up in my room!”
“ Our room,” Jiang Cheng corrected pointedly. “Where are your manners, Wei Ying? You invite a guest over and you don’t even offer him a drink? You’re already an adult.”
Wei Ying stuck his tongue out childishly at his younger bossy brother, but nevertheless asked his esteemed guest, “Are you thirsty?”
“Yes,” Lan Zhan said, his voice hoarse somewhat suddenly. Wei Ying felt Lan Zhan’s arm stiffen as he pressed his body a bit closer. He grinned slyly.
“What do you want?” Wei Ying’s voice carried a teasing and playful tone to it.
Lan Zhan looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.
Jiang Cheng slammed his hands on the counter. “I’ll fucking prepare you some tea. Just… go do your thing.”
…
“Let me show you around,” Wei Ying said as he dragged Lan Zhan by the arm into his room. “This side is mine, and this side is Jiang Cheng’s. Shijie gets her own room since she deserves it, and we all agreed to that. Anyway, here’s my closet… here’s all my cosplay stuff. Oh, wait! Don’t step on that thing, it’ll be useful for my next project… I must have forgotten it when cleaning up.” Wei Ying picked up the item and idly tossed it into the closet as well as some other fabric scraps and art supplies.
He continued to give Lan Zhan a full tour of his side of the room. Lan Zhan stopped at Wei Ying’s collection of bunny merchandise. “Oh! I knew you’d like that one. That collection started with trying to get all of the MDZS merch I could and I kept getting ones with bunnies… before I knew it, I started collecting other bunny-related items that didn’t have to do with MDZS.” Wei Ying laughed and picked up a little cotton ball with a face sewn on it. “This one’s my favorite. Shijie made it so it looks like a little cloud. She knows I like MDZS and that it has clouds and bunnies from what I’ve told her, and she gave me this when I was feeling really lonely… she said this was my very own Lan Wangji to keep me safe at night.”
Wei Ying’s smile was soft. Lan Zhan’s gaze shifted from the small cotton ball to Wei Ying’s gentle face. Really, Lan Zhan could listen to Wei Ying talk about his favorite things for ages if it meant learning more about him and seeing such a joyful face (He hoped, eventually, he would be one of those favorite things that Wei Ying liked to talk about. What a gracious fool Lan Zhan was, for he had already forgotten that both Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng said that Wei Ying had talked about him nonstop since they had met).
“And this is my bed!” Wei Ying dragged him over to the bed, soft enough that it didn’t even make a sound as he plopped down onto it. Wei Ying leaned back and propped himself on his elbows, dragging Lan Zhan’s arm with such force that the taller man stumbled forward. Lan Zhan caught himself by planting his palms on the soft sheets between Wei Ying’s arms and waist. Wei Ying let out a small chuckle, trailing one of his hands up the length of Lan Zhan’s arm to his rest on his cheek. He shifted and leaned upwards. Lan Zhan’s breath hitched.
The door opened suddenly with the force of an indignant thunder god tearing open the sky. Both men froze in their places.
“Your tea.” Jiang Cheng stared at them with narrowed eyes. Wei Ying laughed nervously, pushing Lan Zhan’s shoulder gently, to which Lan Zhan moved back after a moment of hesitation. They both stood up, straightening themselves out a bit. After doing so, Jiang Cheng finally stopped staring at them with judgmental eyes and put the tray with two teacups on it on the nightstand.
“Thanks,” Wei Ying nodded. Any awkwardness that was previously in the air seemed to fade away already as Wei Ying animatedly hopped over and began to push Jiang Cheng out of the door. “Now, we’re going to be recording in here! Don’t come in or the sound of the door opening will ruin it and we’ll have to start all over! Grab what you need now!”
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes and turned around to look at both of them, though his glare was only directed at his older brother. “Just don’t fuck in here while we’re home!” He said and slammed the door shut on the both of them.
Wei Ying was suitably mortified, his mouth hanging agape even after the ringing of the door slamming shut subsided. Where in the world would Jiang Cheng have gotten that idea!? He wasn’t so indecent! How dare he, his brother who knew him best in the world, make such an assumption!
He coughed and picked up the tea to offer it to Lan Zhan. “Ignore him,” he said lowly. “He just—he lets his imagination get away from him. If I died, he’d surely be one to believe I’d find some way to come back to haunt him.” Wei Ying said, though awkwardly. “It’s really not like that… I know I can be affectionate with a lot of people.” He didn’t notice when Lan Zhan seemed to stiffen and frown and continued rambling on, “You don’t have to be so polite and just let me do whatever I want. Um, if I get to be too much for you, just say so, yeah?”
After a tense moment of silence, Lan Zhan sighed. “Never too much.” Lan Zhan said simply. Wei Ying felt his soul leave his body, his heart thrumming wildly in his chest, filling his ears and certainly filling the whole room. “It’s fine if it’s Wei Ying.”
“Lan Zhaaaaan,” Wei Ying whined, covering his face with his hands, almost nearly pouring the hot tea on himself. Lan Zhan quickly grabbed the teacup to prevent such a catastrophe, setting it on the table and sitting down on the bed. “How could you? You’ve said only about 25 words since you’ve gotten here, and you’ve already done a greater number on my heart!” Yes, Wei Ying was counting every word out of the other’s mouth.
If he was being honest with himself, such a thought had never even crossed his mind. He liked Lan Zhan a lot, and he accepted this about himself pretty quickly. He even looked up on reddit and other sites if there was some sort of different procedure to asking out another man versus asking out a woman. He even tried to find out ways he could naturally bring up in conversation the topic of past dates or sexuality just so he could get an inkling of if Lan Zhan was even interested in men. When he tried tweeting out “opening Boyfriend Applications ;)” he got a lot of girls and boys coming into his DMs and figured that he didn’t make it clear enough that he was looking for a boyfriend (in one man in particular), not just to be a boyfriend. Of course, at the time, Lan Zhan had liked his tweet and it sent his heart racing another 20 miles, but he could only conclude that Lan Zhan was being supportive (he’s so nice!) or thought he was funny (which is a major plus anyway!).
It was true that people online had taken to shipping them together due to the increased frequency of their public conversations on twitter. Wei Ying started making a ton of fan art for every piece of writing that Lan Zhan published to help promote him, and sometimes Lan Zhan would write short drabbles based off of his doodles. At this point, it was rare that either of their works didn’t have an accompanying piece. It only fueled their followers when Wei Ying would publicly flirt with Lan Zhan or tag him with cute pictures of bunnies. But, what did any of that mean? Surely, Lan Zhan was level-headed enough to ignore what people said about them, both positive and negative. No matter what, most people took what Wei Ying said as a joke.
Even with all the signals he received that made his skin feel warm and his heart race, Wei Ying still thought that Lan Zhan was just being nice to him. Lan Zhan indulged him and responded to almost every tweet of his, but maybe Lan Zhan did that to everyone. Lan Zhan liked his posts and made him laugh and even liked to send him cute pictures of his bunnies in their private messages, but maybe Lan Zhan would send those bunny pictures to anyone too. Sometimes they’d spend hours on end in a call just working on their own things, but that wasn’t to say he didn’t do that with other people. They held hands quite frequently, but maybe Lan Zhan just liked being affectionate too.
Nevertheless, even if he was used to holding hands, he still nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a warm and gentle touch on the back of his hand that threw him off of his train of thought. Lan Zhan pushed his hands out of his face, holding them with his own and peered into Wei Ying’s eyes. There was no way he could avoid that look! With Lan Zhan so cutely leaning forward and looking up at him from his seated position, Wei Ying opened his mouth to say something but then decided against it. He couldn’t seem to find any more words.
“The duet?” Lan Zhan asked.
Wei Ying blinked in confusion. He stood there, lost in Lan Zhan’s eyes for a moment before Lan Zhan repeated himself more clearly.
“We were going to record the duet.”
“Oh!” Wei Ying laughed. He pulled his hands away from Lan Zhan to go to the recording station, fixing up the setup. “Sorry, I spaced out a bit. Here, you can put your zither there,” he said. His hands shook a little bit as he reached to make sure everything was in place, still feeling the warmth of Lan Zhan’s hands on his own.
Could it really be? Was he the only one that Lan Zhan paid so much attention to?
…
“Lan Zhan! You’re extremely good,” Wei Ying praised with a sigh. He had been so entranced by Lan Zhan’s voice that he nearly had forgotten to breathe for a whole three minutes. Lan Zhan nodded and sat down next to Wei Ying, who laid on his stomach on the floor in front of his computer.
“Let me just do some basic mixing… line it up here…” he fiddled with the audio tracks. “Okay! Let’s listen to it together!” Lan Zhan nodded, although looked at a loss for what to do.
“You go first,” he said, motioning to the headset.
Wei Ying glanced at it and laughed. He moved to unplug the headset to play it out loud, but then decided instead to grab the headset and hold one of the earphones to his ear. With his other hand, he motioned for Lan Zhan to come closer. “I said together! Come on, join me on the floor. Come here.”
Lan Zhan did as he was asked, laying down on his stomach as well, close enough to Wei Ying that their hips and their shoulders were touching. He grabbed the other side of the headset and held it to his ear. It was perhaps the most convoluted way to share a headset, and Wei Ying did have regular earbuds in his drawer, but Lan Zhan didn’t need to know that. This was better. Much better.
He hit the play button.
Wei Ying found his eyes drifting over toward Lan Zhan as the roughly mixed soundtrack played. He wanted to see how Lan Zhan would react to how their voices sounded together, taking a moment of quiet to stare at him so closely.
Lan Zhan was pretty. Undeniably so. His eyelashes fluttered closed as he listened to the music, nodding at a few intervals when the timing seemed to match up flawlessly. His face was calm and relaxed, his hair fell naturally to frame his features. His nose was pointed, his jawline was fine, he…
“It sounds good,” he said suddenly, putting down the headset and turning to look at Wei Ying. Wei Ying blinked in surprise—oh, the song had ended before he realized it.
He nodded in response. “Yeah! Your harmonies are perfect, they go perfectly with me…” he said. “Although really, I can hardly stand listening to myself sing! Sure, I could talk forever, but singing, that’s totally different… it sounds good when you’re behind me, though.”
“I like listening to you sing.”
With a simple statement, Wei Ying had once again lost his composure, allowing his chin to slip from his palm as he melted to the floor. “Lan Zhan!” He buried his face into the carpet below.
Unexpectedly, Wei Ying felt a strong hand on his shoulder that rolled him onto his back. Before he realized it, he was laying on the floor with Lan Zhan pinning him down by his shoulders, their gaze unbreakable. “I want to hear Wei Ying, always.” He slowly began to lean in.
Ah… this… Wei Ying’s mind went absolutely blank, and he tilted his chin up a bit with a slight angle. His hands began to creep up as best as he could to touch Lan Zhan’s waist. He let his eyes close.
“A-Ying, Lan Zhan.”
And his eyes shot right open again as the door of the room opened.
The weight on his shoulders lifted as Lan Zhan sat up, but Wei Ying let out a loud and audible whine . He flailed weakly before he angled his head to see the perpetrator. Jiang Yanli, who had opened the door, covered her mouth with a hand in surprise at the scene before she chuckled quietly. “My apologies. I should have knocked first.”
“Shijie…” Wei Ying used his three-year-old voice. What was he even so upset about? It wasn’t as though Lan Zhan was actually going to kiss him so suddenly, was it? It was as if he was in the midst of a pleasant daydream that he was rudely awakened from.
“The soup is ready whenever you two want to eat. It’s nearly dinner time, so I wanted to see if you boys were hungry,” she said gently. “I promise I won’t disturb you again for the rest of the night. However, you two need some food to keep up your energy.”
“I don’t need more energy…” Wei Ying whined some more. Jiang Yanli simply shook her head at him fondly. She looked at Lan Zhan as if she was certain he could help her with the endeavor of getting her baby brother to eat something. However, Lan Zhan kept staring at Wei Ying’s face, pursing his lips and fidgeting a bit. He finally looked up at Wei Ying’s elder sister.
She laughed. “Don’t you worry. I’ll make sure you two will have another chance later on,” she said vaguely with a wink and a thumbs up at Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan’s eyes seem to light up, and she smiled.
Lan Zhan looked back down to Wei Ying, who resignedly had pushed himself up. “Shijie’s soup is the best,” he said, though with a hint of remorse that they couldn’t finish their earlier activity. “Let’s go and have some, okay? I told her that you didn’t like spicy food or meat, so you’re welcome.”
Lan Zhan nodded, pulling him up by his hand to stand. He didn’t bother letting go.
…
The rhythmic clacking of spoons against ceramic bowls filled the air through a comfortably silent dinner. Comfortable for all but Wei Ying, whose mind was going a mile a minute trying to figure out what Lan Zhan intended with pinning him down and bringing his face closer. It couldn’t have been that he wanted to kiss him, right? It must have been that Lan Zhan saw something on his face, or…
“If you’re not going to eat yours, let me have it,” Jiang Cheng said, snapping Wei Ying out of his reverie. Wei Ying, defensive over the best soup ever, proceeded to drink down the rest of his bowl out of pure spite. His sister laughed as she watched.
“Take your time. Do you want another, A-Ying?” She asked, already preparing another bowl for him.
“No, I’ll be okay. Thank you, Shijie.”
Jiang Yanli raised her eyebrows in surprise, as did Jiang Cheng.
“You’re turning down a second bowl? You never do that.” Jiang Cheng said. He turned to his sister and added, “I’ll have it if he won’t.”
“I’m not that hungry,” Wei Ying said. Really, he couldn’t focus on eating when his mind was on something… someone … else. That someone else who was sitting right next to him. His eyes trailed to the said person on his mind, who was looking at him with slightly furrowed eyebrows. Was Lan Zhan worried about Wei Ying’s behavior?
Jiang Yanli followed his gaze. “Lan Zhan, how did you like the soup? Do you want another bowl?”
“It’s very good. Soup is sweet,” he said with a nod. With only a quick glance at Wei Ying before looking back at Jiang Yanli, he continued, “Not as sweet as Wei Ying, though.”
Jiang Yanli simply giggled knowingly at this. Wei Ying, who had been fretting about his feelings, completely forgot what he was thinking about. He laughed joyfully, yelling, “Stop!!” He tried to wave the blush off of his face.
“Stop, indeed!” Jiang Cheng roared, punching his brother in his arm despite Wei Ying not being the perpetrator. His joyful laughter halted, morphing to an offended expression as he rubbed his arm in pain. Lan Zhan, clearly worried, reached out to also offer comforting rubs to his arm, which Wei Ying was more than happy to accept.
“So you’ve tasted my brother already?” Jiang Yanli poorly hid a diabolical smile behind her hand as she watched all three of the boys’ expressions change. Jiang Cheng wore a look of absolute disgust, wiping the back of his hand that he just punched Wei Ying with as if he’d been infected with cooties. Lan Zhan’s face was unfortunately unreadable but different from what it had been previously. And Wei Ying’s face was all red as he tried to explain.
“Noo, no! It’s not like that, Shijie! I don’t know what you thought you saw but nothing happened!” Wei Ying claimed, and Jiang Cheng’s face only morphed into even more disgust. “Don’t you say something so indecent of Lan Zhan! He wouldn’t—“
But he did.
Wei Ying’s face was swiftly turned toward his companion’s with one strong hand while Lan Zhan leaned forward to capture his lips with his own.
He leaned into it, and Wei Ying let his eyes flutter closed. Lan Zhan’s lips were so warm, with just a hint of sweet lotus soup tinging their taste. It was a messy collision, and Lan Zhan adjusted the angle of his head to fit more nicely with Wei Ying’s. It was warm, soft, heavenly . Wei Ying had only previously daydreamed of it, and now his mind had short-circuited trying to process that it was actually happening.
It seemed to go on a few seconds too long, and Jiang Cheng dropped his spoon with a clatter. As he did, Lan Zhan finally pulled away from Wei Ying. The latter drew in a shaky breath as he stared wide-eyed at his crush who had just kissed him.
“Mn. Not as sweet as Wei Ying.” He nodded to Jiang Yanli as if he was simply confirming his theory.
Easily, the whole Jiang family was left speechless at this.
“Will you… excuse me? I need to go to the bathroom,” Wei Ying said, nearly slurring his words in his shock.
Wei Ying leaped up from his seat and used both of his hands to grab his siblings’ arms, dashing to the bathroom with both of them in tow.
…
“What does this mean?”
“The hell you mean, what does this mean?” Jiang Cheng growled. Wei Ying lowered the seat of the toilet in the cramped bathroom and sat down on it, holding his head in his hands.
“He kissed me! What does that mean!” Wei Ying hissed back at him. His face was still red, and he proceeded to bury his face in his knees and let out a muffled scream.
“I think you know what it means,” Jiang Yanli said gently, squatting down in front of Wei Ying. “Now, now. A-Ying, maybe you should consider asking him how he feels instead of asking us.”
Wei Ying frowned and turned his whole body away, now facing the shower. “No, that’s silly. Why would I ask that? Shijie, please, give me something else.”
“Why wouldn’t you ask that?” Jiang Cheng crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “You’re so bad at talking things out. Isn’t it obvious? He just showed you his feelings and you still are wondering what they are?”
“Can’t you ask him for me?” Wei Ying whined.
“We can. You’d never believe us even if we told you what he said word for word,” Jiang Cheng said.
Jiang Yanli laughed and laid a gentle hand on her brother’s. “Trust me, A-Ying. Just ask him.” She smiled. “I’m dating Jin Zixuan, you know. Of course I know how to deal with someone not being quite upfront with their feelings.”
Wei Ying sat up a bit straighter, fidgeting.
“Just take it slowly. Tell him how you feel. I promise you that it won’t go wrong. Isn’t it better that he knows someone loves him?”
Wei Ying sighed and stood up. As if trying to keep up the ruse, he flushed the toilet before leaving the bathroom.
…
When the three of them re-emerged from the bathroom, Lan Zhan had his head down on the counter. For a second, Wei Ying checked the clock to ensure that it was not already his bedtime. Seeing as it was still an hour before his usual sleeping time, he floated over, confused. He looked back at his two siblings who now kept a distance, Jiang Yanli waving to encourage him to move forward.
Wei Ying took a deep breath. He approached Lan Zhan and gently pressed a hand on his back. “Lan Zhan…? Are you okay?”
Lan Zhan sat up and turned around at the presence. His eyes looked red. He stood up and bowed. “I’m sorry.”
“You—you what?” Wei Ying felt fear bubbling up in his chest. “Sorry?”
Lan Zhan looked at Wei Ying with guilt in his eyes. “I misunderstood what Yanli said, and I misinterpreted your feelings. I didn’t mean to make you run away from me.” He cast his eyes down. “I won’t do it again. Please, just let me stay by your side…”
Wei Ying hadn’t heard so many words from Lan Zhan at once. Thinking back on it, it must have felt pretty awful that he fled the scene as soon as he was kissed. “You fuddy-duddy… there’s no need for apologies.” Wei Ying’s voice was as soft as his expression. He waited until Lan Zhan looked up at him before he continued. “I liked it. I liked it so much that I had to run away because I was scared I couldn’t hold myself back around you!! I liked it. I like you!”
The words came out so naturally that he nearly slapped himself. He had instantly forgotten to take it slow like his Shijie told him to, but he really couldn’t find himself stopping. Wei Ying continued, “I want you to do it to me again. I want you to kiss me all over the place, everywhere, all the time! My heart really can’t handle it around you, Lan Zhan. You’re so nice to me, you’re so supportive, even our creative skills are a perfect match. How could I have been so lucky to have met you?”
Lan Zhan’s ears were a bright red and he visibly trembled. He moved forward and pulled Wei Ying into a tight hug, burying his face in his hair.
“Lan Zhan, oh, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying couldn’t control his giggling, giddy with excitement. He raised his arms to wrap around Lan Zhan’s neck, tangling one of his hands in his hair and pressing it forward. At such a reaction from Lan Zhan, he didn’t see why he didn’t just run his mouth earlier and said everything he felt! “You’re so handsome, you’re so talented. You make me so happy, you know?” He pulled his head away only to press their foreheads together. His face was so irresistibly close. “Of course I’ll stay by your side. Will you stay by mine?”
Lan Zhan moved forward and connected their lips once again. Wei Ying pressed back with much more passion, poking his tongue at the other’s lips who graciously opened his mouth to let him in. Wei Ying had never given someone a French kiss before—well, in fact, he had never given anyone a kiss at all before—but he was finding that he quite enjoyed it.
They parted with a string of saliva connecting their mouths, and Lan Zhan’s words were enough to let Wei Ying transcend to the heavens, “Always. Wei Ying, I love you.”
Wei Ying grinned, and then he started to laugh as he nuzzled his face to Lan Zhan’s. “What’s this? How bold, Lan Zhan. We’ve met each other in person three times, we’ve only known each other in person for half a year. You already feel so strongly?”
“Mn,” Lan Zhan nodded. “For years. Followed Wei Ying faithfully… I always hoped you would look my way.”
Wei Ying’s eyes seemed to sparkle, and his heart was about to give out. He laughed weakly before cupping Lan Zhan’s face with his hands and bringing it to his own. “I’m looking, I’m looking.”
To perfectly ruin the moment, two loud popping sounds came from either side of them, and as they looked around they were showered in blue and red flower-shaped confetti. Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng stood by them, holding party poppers. Jiang Cheng averted his eyes from the new overly-affectionate couple, and Jiang Yanli grinned brightly.
Wei Ying looked between them. “You… you had these prepared? You knew this would happen?”
“It was obvious,” Jiang Cheng said. “With how much you two flirt, it’s a wonder it didn’t happen sooner.”
“Don’t be like that,” Jiang Yanli reprimanded her youngest brother. “It was A-Cheng who wanted to get something to celebrate your getting together. We’ve had them since your first date.”
Jiang Cheng let out a yell of protest. “A-Jie!!” he whined, not wanting his softer intentions to be exposed to his older brother. Jiang Yanli simply laughed.
Wei Ying looked at Jiang Yanli with disbelief and then whipped his head around to stare at Jiang Cheng with wide eyes. He looked at Lan Zhan, too, who still held him tightly around the waist, eyes tracking a piece of confetti as it fell down, his ears pink.
He let out a huff of disbelief at first, then a small laugh of overwhelming joy. He leaned forward and buried his face in Lan Zhan’s chest as he laughed, his hands clutching tightly to his shirt.
He nearly couldn’t believe it. Shijie had supported him from the beginning, and even gave him the courage he needed to confess. He was so predictable that his siblings had prepared something so superficial yet so special to congratulate him. Despite Jiang Cheng being so outwardly disgusted, it was even his idea. Not only were his feelings so happily and passionately returned, he found out that Lan Zhan had felt this way for a long time, letting such affection brew in his heart.
For a long time, Wei Ying thought he was alone. He was fine with this. He was fine being an orphaned child, he was fine considering himself the Jiang family’s burden, he was fine with being an annoying online personality. He wasn’t good at talking to his mutuals and so he went years admiring Lan Zhan from afar. He wasn’t any good at being a regular functioning adult or just shutting up. For so long, he thought himself dispensable. He thought himself unloved… hated, even.
It clearly wasn’t true. Surrounded by his three most important people, his heart was overflowing with all the love he wasn’t sure he knew how to handle. It seemed to be all that mattered.
Lan Zhan noticed that the laughs seemed to morph more into what sounded like sobs, and he clutched tighter. He tried to peer at Wei Ying’s expression. Sure enough, Wei Ying had begun to cry into Lan Zhan’s shirt, his face red. His two siblings noticed too, and in a panic, they both threw down their party poppers to rush to his side.
“A-Ying,” Jiang Yanli whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Wei Ying sobbed, wiping his tears on Lan Zhan’s shirt and pulling an arm away to wipe his nose with his sleeve. He smiled at her even with tears in his eyes. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s…just right.”
In a quick movement, Wei Ying stretched out his arms and brought both of his siblings into a group hug.
“I love you all so much. Don’t you forget it!”
…
Lan Zhan was staying the night.
“A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli had said earlier, “Let Lan Zhan have your bed tonight. You can come and sleep in my room, I’ll prepare the mattress.” And she was off to do that. Lan Zhan was to share the room with Wei Ying, and poor Jiang Cheng was the one who had to relocate.
Their family typically didn’t go to bed early, but because Lan Zhan did, Wei Ying decided to turn in early as well so he wouldn’t disturb Lan Zhan when going to bed in the same room. The lights were already turned off, but Wei Ying laid in bed on twitter with his phone.
wei yeet @ collab!! @yilinglaozu
hey fellas can you imagine meeting your mutual by chance at a con and falling in love with him and asking him out and he says yes (´ ▽ `ʃƪ)♡Lan Zhan @HanguangJun
@yilinglaozu Mn.wei yeet @ collab!! @yilinglaozu
@hanguangjun lan zhan!!!!!!!!!!! 💘 💘💖💕💓💗❤ ( ੭ ु ›ω‹ ) ੭ ु ⁾⁾♡Lan Zhan @HanguangJun
@yilinglaozu Wei Ying. ❤ ( ˊᵕˋ )♡.° ⑅Yao @LianFang
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu Goodness me. Does your brother know, Lan Zhan?mianmian deserved better @ MDZS Girls week! @mianmian
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu holy shitwen ning 🌺 @theghostgeneral
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu jie!!! @WenQingMD I WON THE BET!!! :DDd they got together!!!Wen Qing @WenQingMD
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu @theghostgeneral Honestly, I thought it would take 13 years.New Hampshire @idkidkidk
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu kjdsalbf really???????уαηℓι @sunsetlotus
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu You’re so cute <3JC ⛔ DO NOT REPOST @zidian
@HanguangJun @yilinglaozu What the fuck, go to sleep. What are you both doing on twitter? I did not give up my bed at fucking 9pm to Lan Zhan for nothing.wei yeet @ collab!! @yilinglaozu
@zidian you did give it up for nothing. he's in my bed ٩ ( ᐛ ) وJC ⛔ DO NOT REPOST @zidian
@yilinglaozu Give me back my bed then. Get fucked, you shithead.wei yeet @ collab!! @yilinglaozu
@zidian ok ;)
Wei Ying giggled a bit, turning to see Lan Zhan click his phone off and put it aside. He turned back to his screen and switched it to check a new incoming DM from Nie Huaisang.
New Hampshire
@idkidkidk< for real though, bro?
< you and HanguangJun?
Wei Ying switched to the camera mode and angled his phone slightly, holding it out in front of him. He snapped a picture. Satisfied, he hit send on it with a smirk.
The picture was a selfie of himself and Lan Zhan laying in the same bed, Lan Zhan’s arm seen wrapping around him. Wei Ying still had his red tank top on in the image, while Lan Zhan was clearly spooning him with no shirt on. They hadn’t done anything… obscene, but if anyone would spread a rumor reliably, it would be Nie Huaisang.
He loved Lan Zhan. This much was certain. But he was already testing Lan Zhan’s patience.
He put his phone face down on the nightstand, not bothering to check it again when it buzzed a few times. He wiggled a bit in order to turn around, kicking off the blankets as he repositioned his legs to tangle together with Lan Zhan’s.
Lan Zhan let his eyes wink open. As he did, Wei Ying went right up to kiss his eyelids shut once again. He wrapped his arms around Lan Zhan comfortably, and they adjusted their sleeping position so that they could lay as close as possible together.
Wei Ying leaned in and laid a quick peck on Lan Zhan’s nose, each of his cheeks, and then his mouth.
“Dream of me, Lan Zhan,” he whispered.
“I don’t have to any longer,” Lan Zhan whispered, and gave him a kiss.