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Lan Wangji was not a petty man. He was not. The Lan family had a very set in stone way of raising their children, and since infancy he has been meticulously nurtured and cultivated with the many rules his family had to build good character. He knew better than to think such useless thoughts against another person. After all, he had just entered university and his mind should be focusing on his own education and betterment of his mind, not the miniscule wrongdoing of others.
But by god was he getting close to thinking the most petty thoughts humanly possible.
Lan Wangji was not bothered by having early morning classes. If anything, he welcomed them. It meant the rest of his classmates tended to be more quiet and subdued as they all attempted to ward off sleep, all bleary-eyed and drinking their coffee. Lan Wangji has been going to bed at 9pm and waking up at 5am every day since he was a young child. As such, he was always able to arrive in good time to his first class of the day to allow himself to get the perfect seat. And the same seat. Every day.
Except that day.
Much to his surprise, that day he walked into class and found his seat to already be occupied by a woman whose face was wholly unfamiliar to him. She was clearly not a student in their class, as it was quickly made obvious that she was only a companion of a fellow classmate of his, Wen Chao, he recalled. Though honestly, he’d rather not recall anything at the moment, because despite the early hour Wen Chao and the simpering woman were being entirely too touchy with each other. Definitely more than should be allowed in any classroom. But, the scant amount of students who were already there as well were too tired to do anything about it.
So although there were ugly thoughts threatening to bubble over for just a moment in his body, Lan Wangji just sighed internally and chose to sit a few rows back from the couple so he wouldn’t get distracted. And just his luck, as the classroom began to fill up, the people who sat around him kept quiet and too themselves. The seat next to him remained empty, as the professor finally entered and got ready to begin their lesson for the day. The seat situation by then, was mostly forgotten, other than a small mental note that Lan Wangji tucked away in his mind to arrive to class just a couple more minutes early to avoid the situation from repeating itself.
Unfortunately, peace was not going to be an option for him that day.
20 minutes into the start of the lecture, the classroom door cracked open as a young man tried to discreetly slide into the room unnoticed. It was an immediate failure, as the old door’s hinges groaned at the slightest movement, but the professor only gave the young man side-eye as he continued to speak. This young man was actually familiar to Lan Wangji, unlike the simpering woman who was currently trying to distract Wen Chao from doing any sort of work at all. The man looked like he had just rolled out of bed, still in a wrinkled, baggy black t-shirt and well-worn sweatpants. His hair was a tangled mess, tied up in a haphazard ponytail and patchy, faded red dye giving way to inky black roots that curled around his forehead. Not an uncommon look. Though Lan Wangji could recognize him, it wasn’t much, as the other man usually sat at the very back of the classroom. This was someone that Lan Wangji’s uncle Qiren would immediately tell him to ignore.
So that’s what he did.
That is, until he found the unoccupied seat next to him suddenly occupied. Despite any other earlier attempts to be quiet, the young man now seemed to be content with rustling about as he situated himself, setting down his large coffee on his desk and pulling out a disturbing brightly colored can of energy drink from his backpack. Lan Wangji, despite himself, wondered why he would want to have an energy drink when he had already clearly bought himself a coffee.
“Hey, you’re Lan Wangji, right?” The young man turned to him suddenly, speaking low as to not get caught again by the professor.
“Mn.” He wanted to tell him not to speak during a lecture, but that would involve him having to speak up as well.
The young man nodded. “Wei Wuxian,” he introduced shortly, “Wangji, you’re a righteous dude right? You’ll call an ambulance if I need it?”
Before Lan Wangji could question what that meant, or even wonder where Wei Wuxian got that particular impression of him when they had never even spoken to each other, he got to be a front row witness of what Wei Wuxian meant. And he could only watch in carefully masked horror as Wei Wuxian popped open his energy drink, pour the entire can into his coffee, and begin downing it at a disturbing speed. When the empty cup was finally slammed onto the desk again, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian both stared at it for a couple of seconds before turning to look at each other.
Wei Wuxian gave him a big grin. “I’m going to die.”
And he began to shake rather violently.
Again, Lan Wangji’s thoughts were cut off before he could process the sudden announcement. Other students were beginning to glance over at them in curiosity.
“No...No wait I’m good.” Wei Wuxian paused, a look of concentration on his face. “No. No I’m not. Not good.” The blood drained from his face. “Is my chest supposed to hurt this much?” His eyes seemed out of focus, moving back and forth nearly vibrating.
Well, Wei Wuxian asked him if he’d call an ambulance if he needed it. Well. He definitely needed it.
The rest of that morning was a blur.
--
Lan Wangji did not see Wei Wuxian in class for three days.
That much was understandable. As it turns out, there was two degrees of separation between himself and Wei Wuxian, which would explain why the other man seemed to be familiar with him outside of a classroom context. As it turned out, his elder brother Lan Xichen was good friends with Wei Wuxian’s adopted brother Jiang Cheng. The night the incident occurred, Xichen handed over his phone to Wangji so that he could see a photo that Wei Wuxian had uploaded onto one of his social media pages.
There was the familiar young man that had sat next to him yesterday. Lan Wangji thought it had been purely his own bad luck, but now that he realized Wei Wuxian recognized him as ‘someone to be trusted’ he wondered if Wei Wuxian sat next to him instead of in the back for this exact reason. He surely didn’t seem to think it was that serious, as in the photo he was surrounded by his friends, all of whom were doing silly poses around Wei Wuxian’s hospital bed as he held his hands up in peace signs and a grin planted firmly on his face. Lan Wangji glanced down at the caption.
got sent to the hospital bc of caffeine overdose lmaooooo
…
...Ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Xichen could only chuckle. “Jiang Cheng asked me to pass along a message from Wei Wuxian. Apparently he’s very glad that you were such a good friend to call an ambulance for him.”
Friend? The only words they had exchanged to each other had only been Wei Wuxian asking him if he’d get him help. He hadn’t even allowed him a second to respond!
And though his brother hinted to him that perhaps Wangji should go and visit Wei Wuxian, he decided against it. Lan Xichen, despite having the same upbringing as Lan Wangji, had always been the more social of the two. It just felt as though it would be too awkward to show up to Wei Wuxian’s hospital room out of the blue, especially when he was already clearly well-loved by his own friends stopping by to visit him and laughing together as though this was just a fun experience to tell stories about when they were older. Lan Wangji felt the only thing he’d do was chastise Wei Wuxian for doing something so utterly stupid. Which, he rightly deserved as that was entirely too dangerous to do. But even Lan Wangji knew his place, they weren’t familiar enough with each other for that type of interaction.
And so, he let the situation slip past him.
Or at least, tried to. Because the world was permanently against him now.
Lan Xichen never lied, so when he had told him that Wei Wuxian considered him a good friend, he honestly and truly meant it.
Because the day that Wei Wuxian finally returned to class a couple days after the incident, he sat down right next to Lan Wangji again (who thankfully, was back in his normal spot) and smiled at him.
“Wangji! I’m back!”
He looked at him. “Mn.”
Wei Wuxian pouted. “Oh come on, you’re my savior right? You should say a bit more than that.” He put on an overexaggerated wistful expression on his face. “You didn’t even visit me in the hospital. I’m hurt. At least scold me! Do something!”
Lan Wangji stared. “Ridiculous.”
“Eh?”
“Don’t do that again.”
Wei Wuxian looked at him for a few moments, and then burst into laughter. The only thing Lan Wangji could do was stare blankly at him until the laughter finally died down into only a mirthful smile still playing across his lips.
“Really, you didn’t have to actually scold me! I’ve gotten enough from my family.” He reached toward his backpack and pulled out a brand new water bottle. “I’m not allowed caffeine for a good long while.” He made a show of taking a long sip from his water, smacking his lips and letting a loud sigh of contentment.
“Mn.” He’s glad that Wei Wuxian isn’t drinking any more caffeine. Just based on Wei Wuxian’s current actions, Lan Wangji doubted the man even needed caffeine to be energized.
“But…” Wei Wuxian slyly slid his chair a bit closer to Lan Wangji. “Is it okay if I take you out? For like, dinner?”
Lan Wangji looked at him, expressionless.
Wei Wuxian suddenly sputtered a bit, quickly covering it over with a laugh. “As in, like a thank you! You never visited me in the hospital and I suddenly felt bad for putting you in charge of my body so suddenly! So it’ll be my treat! I know I really good place by campus we could walk to!
Lan Wangji almost wanted to say no. Almost. Wei Wuxian was absolutely everything that his family warned against. He was reckless, he was unkempt, he ignored rules, and blatantly put responsibility onto Lan Wangji for no good reason other than knowing offhand that he was a ‘righteous dude’ as he had put it originally. But, he seemed genuinely thankful. And he was giving Lan Wangji one of the most hopeful puppy eyes he’d ever seen. It would be impolite to say no. That was the only reason Lan Wangji was agreeing to this.
He nodded, and ignored the slight fluttering in his stomach as Wei Wuxian clapped his hands together in joy.