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When Jiang Cheng comes home, he’s met with silence. It’s unusual enough that he immediately goes to look for his husband and their son.
“Xichen?” he calls out when he can’t find them neither in the kitchen nor the living-room.
“Here,” Lan Xichen calls back and Jiang Cheng finds him sitting on the floor in front of Lan Jingyi’s door.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Cheng asks and sits down next to Lan Xichen, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek.
“Jingyi has locked himself in ever since we came back from school,” Lan Xichen says and just on time Jiang Cheng can hear the lock being turned.
When Lan Jingyi opens the door, Jiang Cheng itches to immediately rush forward and hug him, because it’s clear as day that he has been crying.
“What’s wrong, munchkin?” Lan Xichen softly asks, though Jiang Cheng can tell he wants to reach out for him, too.
“You didn’t want me,” Lan Jingyi cries and he turns watery eyes on Jiang Cheng. “You left baba because of me.”
“Oh, boy,” Jiang Cheng mutters under his breath before he holds his hands out to his son. “Come here, kiddo?” he asks, giving Lan Jingyi the choice and Lan Jingyi cries even harder.
“You don’t want me and you’re going to give me away again,” he wails out and now Jiang Cheng can’t let that stand.
“I love you, kiddo,” he says and leans forward to gently pull him closer.
His heart painfully constricts when Lan Jingyi throws himself into Lan Xichen’s arms instead of his own, but he guesses under these circumstances it’s to be expected.
Lan Xichen hugs their son close, letting him cry for a long while, and it’s only when the sobs taper down that Lan Xichen gently turns him around.
“What happened, A-Yi?” he asks and Lan Jingyi’s lower lip still wobbles dangerously.
“I overheard the parents at school,” he whispers and clings to Lan Xichen’s shirt. “They said dad left you because of me, and that you will give me away, too.”
Jiang Cheng wonders if he can find out just which parents said that in earshot of a child, just to have some very stern words with them
“It’s not true,” Jiang Cheng says to Lan Jingyi and he turns his head around, but borrows deeper into Lan Xichen. “I never left your baba and we would never give you away. We love you, more than anything.”
“They said you hate kids,” Lan Jingyi mumbles and then turns pleading eyes on Jiang Cheng. “I’ll try to be better, not as loud, but please don’t hate me,” he gets out and then he starts sobbing again.
Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen share a look over his head and Jiang Cheng knows that Lan Xichen feels the same murderous urges as he does.
“Maybe you should go call the school and I’ll take this,” Jiang Cheng lowly says and Lan Xichen nods, after he presses a lingering kiss to Lan Jingyi’s head.
“Come here, kiddo,” Jiang Cheng says as Lan Xichen hands Lan Jingyi over to him.
Lan Jingyi struggles for a bit, but before Jiang Cheng can decide that it might be better if he puts him down again, Lan Jingyi curls up against his chest.
“Please don’t hate me,” he whispers and Jiang Cheng very much feels like crying in that moment.
“I could never hate you, kiddo, I love you way too much for that,” Jiang Cheng tells him, but Lan Jingyi shakes his head.
“But you hate kids, and you didn’t want me!”
“I don’t hate kids,” Jiang Cheng starts with the easier of those two statements. “I love the kids that are close to me. Would you ever doubt I love Jin Ling or Lan Sizhui?” he asks and Lan Jingyi shakes his head after a bit of consideration.
“So it’s just me,” he then dejectedly mumbles and Jiang Cheng tickles his tummy to distract him.
“I love you best of all, because you’re my son. Our son.”
Lan Jingyi laughs, briefly, but soon the tears start to form in his eyes again, even though Jiang Cheng does his best to brush them away.
“But I’m not. I’m adopted,” he says, because they have never tried to hide the fact that there is no blood-relation to either of them.
“Yes, you are. But it still makes you our son, because we raised you and we love you. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, you’re ours.”
“Why didn’t my parents want me?” Lan Jingyi asks and Jiang Cheng knew they were going to have this conversation eventually but he didn’t think it would happen this soon.
Lan Jingyi only turned seven last week.
“I don’t know, kiddo. Your baba said they left a letter with you, claiming to be overwhelmed with taking care of you, but I never spoke to them personally.”
“Why don’t you want me, then?” Lan Jingyi asks instead of latching on to that and Jiang Cheng hugs him even tighter.
“Listen, kiddo. When your baba and I got together, we both were very clear on the fact that we didn’t want kids,” he says and shushes Lan Jingyi when he tenses in his arms. “Let me finish, okay?”
“Okay,” Lan Jingyi breathes out and then turns his big eyes on Jiang Cheng who can’t help but to pepper his face with kisses, just because he can and because he knows Lan Jingyi loves it.
“Stop it, stop it, dad,” Lan Jingyi yells soon enough pushing Jiang Cheng’s face away, but he’s smiling and that’s all that counts.
“So, we didn’t want kids and we were both fine with that. And then I go on a business trip and who do I find in my bedroom when I came back?” Jiang Cheng asks and he flicks Lan Jingyi’s nose who almost goes cross-eyed at that.
“Me?” Lan Jingyi guesses and Jiang Cheng nods.
“You. And your baba. Who had already adopted you two days before and who never asked me or even told me. And I wasn’t ready to be a dad,” Jiang Cheng honestly says because he hadn’t been, not at that moment.
“You left him,” Lan Jingyi mutters and looks down at his hands. “Because of me.”
“Wrong, kiddo,” Jiang Cheng says and raises his head with a finger under his chin. “I never left him. I asked for some space and went back to living in my own apartment for a few weeks, but we never broke up, I promise you that.”
“But you still didn’t want me.”
“I was taken off guard,” Jiang Cheng tries to explains. “Your baba never mentioned you before and suddenly there is this kid in my home that I don’t know and who I never even knew existed. You know how parents have nine months to prepare for the fact that they will have a kid?” he asks and waits until Lan Jingyi nods.
“I didn’t get those nine months. I didn’t even get a week to adjust to that thought.”
“How long did you stay away?” Lan Jingyi asks, but Jiang Cheng is glad to see that there are no more tears in his eyes.
“I moved back in again barely a month later.”
“Because you love baba.”
“And because I came to love you, too. I didn’t know I could want that, a kid with your baba, because it was never a question for us. But then fate threw you at us, and there hasn’t been a day since then where I’m not thankful for that.”
“Were you angry with baba?” Lan Jingyi wants to know and Jiang Cheng sighs.
“Very. He brought you home without a warning. But I know why he did it, and he definitely did the right thing in making you his son.”
“You’re no longer angry?”
“Haven’t been for almost five years now,” Jiang Cheng tells him.
“And you’re not going to give me away, like they did?”
“Never, kiddo. You’re ours. Your baba and I will never give you away, we love you way too much for that.”
“Us three, together?”
“Us three, together. Always,” Jiang Cheng promises him and then has the breath knocked out of him when Lan Jingyi throws his arms around his neck to hug him tight.
“I love you, kiddo,” he whispers into Lan Jingyi’s hair and the arms around him go a little bit tighter.
“I love you, too, dad.”
“And I love you, three,” Lan Xichen’s voice suddenly comes from above them and he presses a kiss to both their heads.
“And we love you,” Lan Jingyi says as he looks up at his baba, tears already forgotten as it seems.
Jiang Cheng will make sure to still tell him more often how loved he is.
“I talked to the school, the parents in question will be invited for a talk,” Lan Xichen tells him as he sits down next to them.
“Because they were lying?” Lan Jingyi asks and squirms around in Jiang Cheng’s lap until he finds a comfortable position.
“That and because they hurt you with their lies,” Lan Xichen answers and pushes Lan Jingyi’s bangs out of his eyes. “But I see you can laugh again already.”
“Because dad loves us,” Lan Jingyi says like he never even doubted it in the first place and Jiang Cheng hides his smile in his son’s hair.
He loves both of them more than he can say.