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Chapter Text

"Do you ever stop smiling?”

Lan Xichen hadn’t even realized he was smiling. Blinking, he stopped his fingers over the strings of his guqin and looked over at Jiang Cheng - at his husband, a part of his mind rattled with something like joy and a lot like wonder - who looked sleepy where he sat at the instrument’s end, chin on his hand and folded forward. It was the least proper he’d ever seen them, but that was more than allowed, given his cheeks were flushed with drink. Even his sleeping braid, drunkenly put in, was askew, as was the rest of him.

They were still in their wedding red and no matter how many times Lan Xichen played to forget, the thought persisted. This is my wedding night… The blush that caused was quick, but thankfully Jiang Cheng was too muddled to notice. He smiled at the man’s slightly glazed expression.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I’m not always aware of when I do smile or when I don’t.”

Jiang Cheng nodded once, absorbing that as best he could with alcohol brain, and closed his eyes with a hum. “You smile whenever I see you. To me, you’re always smiling.”

Lan Xichen chuckled and reached over to tease the end of Jiang Cheng’s braid, which was flopped over his shoulder and wrapped in Lan Xichen’s wedding ribbon. The sight made his heart clench and his soul tremble, just a little, this proof that he belonged to this man, maybe even forever, and Jiang Cheng in turn was his too. “Perhaps that is because I always want to smile for you, Wanyin.”

“For me?” Jiang Cheng looked puzzled, as though that didn’t make sense, and said as much. “Why would you want that?”

“Because you are so easy to smile at,” Lan Xichen told him, feeling a soft pinch of heat in his ears at the admission. “You and A-Ling. You make me smile.”

“…really?” Jiang Cheng straightened a little and looked over at the couch, where Jin Ling had snuck in to sleep. It wasn’t like they were doing anything in regards to a proper wedding night anyway, and there was a gentle peace to be found in the little boy’s soft breaths and tiny snores.

Lan Xichen touched Jiang Cheng’s flushed cheek and smiled even sweeter. “Really. I do not lie, you know. It’s against the rules.”

“Ugh, rules,” Jiang Cheng said in near disgust, making him chuckle. “But I believe you. Zewu-jun does not lie, after all. That I do know.”

“Good, now, shall I play another for you?” Lan Xichen asked, already gently plucking a string. Jiang Cheng immediately folded over again, melting on the spot, and nodded with a hum of assent.

He wasn’t sure where wedded life would lead them, but he could not argue that this, right here, with Jiang Cheng’s walls down completely in his presence in a complete show of trust, was a very good place to begin.

Chapter Text

It was at that time of night when words began to run together. Jiang Cheng had re-read the same sentence for what had to be the fifth time in a row and it still made little sense. Either his Elders had finally gone completely mad and unintelligible - if he could only be so lucky - or he was way too tired for this.

He rubbed his eyes and pulled the candle a little closer, hoping a stronger light would make the report less like a muddled mess and more what it was supposed to be. It only made him squint more. Fuck.

A soft chuckle and the gentle swish of robes had him giving up entirely, even before Lan Xichen’s hands rested on his shoulders and a kiss was pressed to the top of his head.

“Can I be of some assistance?”

“Did I wake you?” Jiang Cheng asked instead of answering that, leaning back with a low sigh. Sleeping with the man was still a new experience, even three months in, but he’d learned a lot about his husband during that time. Lan Xichen, for one, definitely kept to that Lan sleeping schedule and did not do well with waking up before the designated time. He could be persuaded with kisses, or if he was worried about something, or if Jin Ling climbed into bed with them because he had a nightmare, but generally Lan Xichen enjoyed sleeping too much to fully wake up again unless he felt it was important enough to do so.

Jiang Cheng wondered if it would ever really sink in, the knowledge Lan Xichen thought he was that important.

“Mmm, no, but I think I’ve grown accustomed to when you usually join me,” Lan Xichen mused, a warm and welcoming presence at his back. Jiang Cheng wanted to sink into him forever and sleep for the next one hundred years, but that would only make the paperwork that much worse, so he refrained. “When I reached for you, you weren’t there, and I had a feeling you were working still.”

“Am I so predictable?” Jiang Cheng wouldn’t doubt that, if only because Lan Xichen was a very perceptive man and watched Jiang Cheng close. His husband had an uncanny ability to guess his moods, or know when he was about to make a joke, even if it didn’t sound like one. And it was fair enough that he did tend to fall into bed at the same time nightly at Lotus Pier, but still. Important enough to come searching for him?

“Your elders are,” Lan Xichen told him and dipped his head down a little lower, kissing his cheek. A curtain of unbound hair slipped off his shoulder and over Jiang Cheng’s, as though to block them off into their own world. A world where beds were a thing, and work wasn’t. “They always punish you with extra reports when you return from Gusu.”

“It’s nothing,” Jiang Cheng said, because it really was nothing. Petty nonsense, whatever little nit-picky things his Elders could scrounge up, all designed to chastise him for his marriage in the first place. All it did, really, was make him lose sleep. And now it was robbing Lan Xichen of sleep too. Unacceptable. “But I can kill them for you if you want. Just say the word.”

A soft laugh and another kiss. His nose that time. Jiang Cheng felt his eyes flutter and his face tilt into it, a silent demand in the movement. Lan Xichen chuckled but did not kiss him the way he wanted, just gently reached out to tug the end of Jiang Cheng’s sleeping braid. Enticement. 

“Killing them would only lead to more paperwork,” he reasoned, which was probably how it would go given Jiang Cheng’s luck. “I’d rather you put that off until tomorrow and come to bed.”

“You just asked to help me, and now you want me to ignore it entirely.” Not that Jiang Cheng was complaining, but it was far too charming how Lan Xichen’s brain didn’t quite work in full circles when he was this tired. “Which is it?”

Lan Xichen sighed, fond, and reached down to take Jiang Cheng’s brush away. Then his hands were curling around Jiang Cheng’s and pulling. His strength was impressive, even half asleep, and Jiang Cheng felt himself grinning as he was tugged to his feet.

“I am helping,” Lan Xichen decided, looking down at their joined hands with a pleased gleam in his eye.

Jiang Cheng was quickly losing against the need to laugh. “By making me ignore my work.”

“By making you sleep,” his husband countered and gave his hands a little tug, much like Jin Ling did when Jiang Cheng was being contrary. Jiang Cheng shook his head and gave in, smiling up at the sleepy fool that had run off with his heart and wasn’t even a little sorry for it.

“Alright, fine, take me away,” Jiang Cheng said, pretending to be long-suffering, and got a laugh for it.

“All the courts warned me I was marrying a stubborn, difficult man,” Lan Xichen teased once he had Jiang Cheng on their bed and followed after him the moment Jiang Cheng settled under the blanket and held it up for him. He was immediately tucked into Jiang Cheng’s side, head on his chest, and sighing low and deep.

“The courts warned me I was marrying the pinnacle of beauty and grace and that I would corrupt him,” Jiang Cheng recalled, feeling the world slowly fade down to the man in his arms and those dark eyes looking up at him in sweet amusement.

“They weren’t wrong,” Lan Xichen told him and trailed a gentle hand down his face, tracing over his lips. “You are stubborn and difficult.”

Jiang Cheng thought about being worried about that, but the utter love on Lan Xichen’s face had the anxiety dying before it could even begin. “And you are beautiful. And graceful,” he said, blushing, but tired enough to let the words free, just this once.

“And if you have corrupted me, it can only be for the better,” Lan Xichen told him and snuggled in as close as he could manage, quite determined to erase every distance possible between them. He was heavy, but Jiang Cheng had gotten used to it, and played with the ends of Lan Xichen’s hair where it splayed over his back.

“You’ve definitely corrupted me,” Jiang Cheng told him, too soft really for the joke to land right, but he couldn’t help it. The man made him soft, too soft, and he couldn’t even be mad about it. “A full vegetarian meal. I’m still angry that it was that good.”

Lan Xichen laughed, a full laugh, rare to hear and not refined in the least. He laughed like a boy, charmed and guileless, and even snorted a bit when he was really going. They were too tired for that tonight, Jiang Cheng knew, and reveled in what he got.

“Wanyin, what a wonder you are,” his husband murmured, a happy hum around each word. “Who would have believed we would find our way to each other the way we did?”

“Definitely not me,” Jiang Cheng’s face was hot and his smile was crooked, heart a mess and eyes too tired to stay open much longer. He couldn’t remember a time in his life when going to bed had felt so carefree. “But I’m glad.”

“Mmm, I’m glad too. Glad we found our way,” Lan Xichen said, nuzzling against his heartbeat, and voice glowing with a gentle smile. “And I’m very glad that you are mine.”

Jiang Cheng swallowed at that and pulled Lan Xichen’s unused pillow over his face to hide, much to Lan Xichen’s delight if that laughter meant anything. “Fucking shameless.”

Lan Xichen sat up enough to pull the pillow away and finally, finally kiss him on the lips. He was still pouting when the man drew away, red cheeked and embarrassed as hell, but unable to not smile back at Lan Xichen’s happy face.

“I’m telling the truth,” he laughed and lifted a hand when Jiang Cheng hit him with the pillow. It was half-hearted, but got him back into that childlike laughter, which was all that really mattered.

“Because you’re an idiot,” Jiang Cheng huffed and smacked him again. Lan Xichen’s grip was solid as he caught the pillow and his mouth was far too silly and grinning to kiss Jiang Cheng proper, but that didn’t stop him from trying. It never did.

“You knew that even before you married me,” Lan Xichen pointed out, eyes half lidded in sleepy victory.

“Obviously I wasn’t thinking,” Jiang Cheng snorted, his own eyes fluttering again. Lan Xichen reached up to rub the spot between his brows, soothing the crease there, and relaxing him further into the bed. It was an unfair trick, but the best one, and Jiang Cheng would never argue it. “And now I’m stuck with you.”

“Yours,” Lan Xichen agreed, far too pleased with himself. Jiang Cheng was glad he didn’t have the strength to open his eyes any more, so didn’t have to see that victorious grin. He’d blushed enough tonight.

“All mine,” Jiang Cheng muttered and pulled the man back down. He went willingly enough, warm with laughter and far too sticky. The court had been very wrong about this, at least, and Jiang Cheng was honored to know he was the only one to have seen Lan Xichen this way, laughing his boyish laugh, snuggling in like a bear-sized kitten and just as heavy. He was not what Jiang Cheng had imagined his spouse to be like in the past, but now he couldn’t picture anyone else in Lan Xichen’s place. Because it truly was his place, his home, his spot in Jiang Cheng’s life, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

He was beginning to wonder if he was going to be able to do this. It’d been easy to agree when Lan Xichen had backed him slowly into the wall and kissed him, between the hot breaths and those hands cradling the sides of his jaw. Seeing the heat in the usually composed Lan’s eyes, knowing he was responsible for the way he was breathless, flushed, wanting…

It’d been way too easy to say yes to this. But now, without the safety of that moment, Jiang Cheng was just a man who’d never done this before, let alone with someone he cared about. They were married, fine, and friends long before, but this was… new. Very new.

The only consolation was that Lan Xichen seemed just as uncertain as he did standing alone with him in Jiang Cheng’s rooms. And why shouldn’t he? Four thousand rules of strict Lan conduct. If Jiang Cheng didn’t know what he was doing, what was the chance that Lan Xichen did?

No, chances were Jiang Cheng would have to take charge here. What a terrifying prospect. Still, he wasn’t about to let Lan Xichen down. He was a coward in some things, but he was determined that this wouldn’t be one of them. So, with far more bravado than he was feeling, he leaned in the archway to the room, watching Lan Xichen slowly undo his hair and set his ribbon aside. His movements were slow, purposeful, but his shoulders were slightly tense. Was he, perhaps, waiting for Jiang Cheng to tell him to leave?

“Do you want this?” Jiang Cheng asked, because that was the most important part of tonight, if anything even happened. He needed to know Lan Xichen wasn’t forcing himself to be here.

Lan Xichen’s shoulders hitched and a fetching blush traveled down his neck, stark against the white robes. “I do,” he said, managing a strong voice. Jiang Cheng nodded, believing him, and took a slow breath to steady himself.

“Then take off your robes,” he said, challenge clear. “If you sleep in that many layers you’ll get way too hot.”

Lan Xichen swallowed at that and Jiang Cheng felt something in his stomach start to heat. Shit. How could this man rile him up so badly with just the barest flash of throat?

Slowly, Lan Xichen reached for his sash and looked uncertain all over again. Jiang Cheng forced himself to move off the wall and over to the man, feeling vulnerable, but that was a small price to pay to let Lan Xichen know he was not alone in this.

“Here, let me,” Jiang Cheng said in a voice that he hoped sounded more attractive then scared. Reaching forward, he hooked his fingers through the sash and pulled it free. The slide of fabric on fabric had him shivering.

“Wanyin,” Lan Xichen murmured, not bothering to hide the anticipation he felt in his own voice. Jiang Cheng took another breath and slid his hands up Lan Xichen’s chest, fingers splaying, and eased the top robe off the man’s shoulders, then the second.

When he touched skin, Lan Xichen flinched and Jiang Cheng paused, looking up at him. His husband looked… wrecked. Just from being touched. The sight made him burn all the more.

“Lan Huan,” he said softly, stepping in close. “Do you still want this?”

“Yes, I just…” Lan Xichen closed his eyes, breathing slow. “No one has ever…”

“Yeah, me either,” Jiang Cheng said and removed his hands from under the final robe. Lan Xichen made a soft noise of protest, but quieted when Jiang Cheng took his wrists and gently guided them to his own sash.

“We don’t have to…” Jiang Cheng couldn’t even say it, blushing hotly as it burned in his mind. Lan Xichen seemed in an equal state of embarrassment, but nodded again.

“The night is ours. We can only see where it goes,” he said, ever wise, and slipped Jiang Cheng’s sash free. It fell to the floor in a flutter, a violet arch against the puddle of white and blue at their feet. Jiang Cheng shivered as his outer robes were dropped to the floor, then stopped Lan Xichen from touching him again.

“If you want me to stop, tell me,” Jiang Cheng told him, firm on that. “I will stop immediately. I swear it.”

Lan Xichen softened at that and the kiss he drew him into was heartbreakingly tender. “I know you will, Wanyin,” he said, eyes full of trust and want. It was a heady combination, one Jiang Cheng had never been given. With trembling hands, he touched Lan Xichen’s chest once more, feeling his skin, and delighted in the soft gasp he won against his mouth.

“If I do something you don’t like…”

“I will tell you, but only if you promise the same,” Lan Xichen said, kissing him slowly, deeply. Jiang Cheng felt his knees go weak as their eyes met, dark and charged with the desire that had been building since the beginning. “I am here, I am willing, and I am yours.”

He punctuated the declaration with little kisses on Jiang Cheng’s forehead, his cheek, his nose, while his final layer of clothing slipped to the floor. He scrunched his face out of instinct, back arching and body twitching as Lan Xichen’s fingers trailed up his back. It was far too light, far too quick, and his skin was not used to being touched. He nearly danced right out of Lan Xichen’s hands, a soft yelp in his throat.

And just like that, Lan Xichen was laughing, a low, boyish, guileless laugh that would be beautiful to hear if it weren’t aimed at him doing something so damned embarrassing. Flushing in shame, it took all of Jiang Cheng’s willpower not to grab up his fallen clothing and sulk off into some dark corner somewhere like a hissing cat, but the urge was strong.

“Forgive me, Wanyin,” Lan Xichen was quick to stop him before he could even move, reading his blush as easily as he read his scowl. “I’m sorry, but that was adorable.”

The mood gone, Jiang Cheng felt no concern with smacking the man in the stomach, lightly, but enough to make a sharp noise. “Shut up, I’m not adorable.”

“You are,” Lan Xichen argued, because of course he did, and returned his hands to where Jiang Cheng had shied away. This time, however, his touch was far more firm and Jiang Cheng gradually relaxed. “I am sorry,” he said again with a slow kiss to a spot under Jiang Cheng’s eye. “I will do my best to not touch so softly. You are not touched often, so your skin must be sensitive.”

It was better than saying ticklish, so Jiang Cheng would take it. “You as well?” he asked, awed that somehow their moment was not lost yet. The heat was still in his belly, the want still in Lan Xichen’s eyes. He lifted his hands back over Lan Xichen’s chest and pushed up, making the under robe cascade down the man’s arms and to the floor. He was like carved jade, pale and smooth skinned. And there were random dots on his collar bone, the top of his shoulder. Jiang Cheng felt the urge to lean in and kiss them, so he did.

Lan Xichen made a noise a bit like a whimper, bitten off quickly. “Yes,” he breathed as Jiang Cheng kissed the freckle on his collarbone. Jiang Cheng made sure it was not too light, more a scrape of teeth and tongue than just lips, and his husband’s grip on him almost turned painful.

“Fuck…” Jiang Cheng pulled back, only to be kissed, the kind of kiss that made him go weak, even as his body came alive, breath hot and mind turning to mush. Where Lan Xichen had learned to kiss like that was a mystery and one Jiang Cheng did not want to solve. All that mattered was that he was the one Lan Xichen was kissing and damn was it good.

“If you don’t stop kissing me, I’m going to fall over,” Jiang Cheng warned, shivering in his hold. Lan Xichen managed a laugh, just as out of breath as he was, and pressed their foreheads together.

“Then take me to bed?”

Who knew just where the night would lead. He only knew he wanted to find out and that every answer lay in Lan Xichen’s arms. So Jiang Cheng slid his hands over Lan Xichen’s shoulders and stepped backwards, hands twisting in Lan Xichen’s hair, beckoning.

“Bed.”

Chapter Text

Nearly six months of marriage and countless weeks spent among the YunmengJiang disciples, coupled with the growing number of nights spent with Jiang Cheng in the sect leader’s rooms and bed, had somehow not prepared him for any of this.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Lan Xichen had known he was coming down with something since the day before. A tightness in his chest, a rasp every time he swallowed. A headache that could not be soothed away. Even the winter chill could only do so much to dull it and he’d taken to wrapping up in his favorite shawl and his husband’s cloak as he did his rounds of his home.

As sect leader, it wasn’t as though he could put everything on hold for a mild fever and pain behind his eyes, no matter what the servants seemed to think, or how much A-Yi and A-Yuan fluttered. Wangji made sure extra, smaller meals peppered his desk throughout the day, as well as good broth and tea, and it was enough to keep him going, so he had no complaints.

If Jiang Cheng was there, he’d no doubt force Lan Xichen to bed and take over everything, as he was prone to do when he worried. They had only been married three years, but Jiang Cheng had caught onto the running of Cloud Recesses quickly and thoroughly. Lan Xichen knew that he could trust Jiang Cheng with his home, if it came down to it.

But he wasn’t in Cloud Recesses, wasn’t there to force him to rest with Jin Ling, who’d move all his toys into Lan Xichen’s rooms, no doubt, to watch him too. They were too alike and protective of him and he missed them with every breath, wanting nothing more than their odd brand of love than the old emptiness of their absence.

Of course, he should have known that in wishing for his husband, that was when Jiang Cheng would appear. As he always did.

He hadn’t even realized he’d had the fever, to be perfectly fair. The headache had grown enough to stop him from work, and Lan Xichen had indulged in a rare nap, still snuggled in Jiang Cheng’s fluffy robe. It’d been early afternoon when he’d closed his eyes and evening when he opened them again.

Little Fairy, not nearly so little as he used to be, gave a soft boof from where he was sprawled beside him. The sound had the clamor of wooden toys halting, then quick feet hurrying to his bed.

“Jiu-mu!” Jin Ling beamed, voice hushed and eyes bright. “You finally woke up.”

“A-Ling.” Lan Xichen felt all of him soften in relief just seeing his round, well beloved face. “When did you arrive?”

“An hour ago,” Jin Ling told him, climbing up onto the bed to join him and his dog, who was already wiggling in joy. “Jiu-jiu is getting dinner ready.”

Which meant he was ordering people around while taking over the kitchen himself. Lan Xichen chuckled just thinking of it, and that, inevitably, led to a coughing fit. Jin Ling hopped quickly back off the bed and ran to a waiting teapot. The tea he brought back smelled of warm honey and chamomile, perfectly soothing.

“Jiu-jiu told me to give you this to help with coughs,” Jin Ling said, brow furrowed in worry and arms around Little Fairy’s scruff.

“It’s wonderful, thank you,” Lan Xichen said and sipped his tea. He reached out to gently rub the crease between Jin Ling’s brows as he’d seen Jiang Cheng do so many times. The boy giggled immediately, worry forgotten. “Do you know when Wanyin will come back?”

“Soon,” Jin Ling said after some thought and looked immediately torn. “A-Yi and A-Yuan will be waiting for me for dinner…”

“Go, before your jiu-jiu returns,” Lan Xichen waved him off and pat his head when he was quickly hugged. Then the eight year old was tugging on his cloak in a blur of movement with Little Fairy hot on his heels.

“I’ll be back after dinner, jiu-mu!”

“Have fun,” Lan Xichen waved, knowing it would be closer to curfew that Jin Ling would return, and had to laugh at the grin he was shot around the shutting lattice.

There was blessed silence for a few minutes, charged with the anticipation that seeing Jin Ling had lit in his heart. When the lattice slid open once more, Lan Xichen nearly wanted to cry in relief, but could not find the breath to do so. Jiang Cheng, dusted in snow and wrapped in Lan Xichen’s white cloak, was a vision and a true balm to his heart after the months apart.

Uncaring that Jiang Cheng was carrying a tray of food, he lifted his arms to his husband, like a toddler wanting to be picked up, and got a flash of a relieved, if exasperated, smile.

“Hopeless,” Jiang Cheng said, setting down the tray and leaning dutifully over him so Lan Xichen could get his arms around him. “Feeling better?”

“I feel rested,” Lan Xichen told him, glad it was true. “But I fear a fever will set back in.”

“You look so worried,” Jiang Cheng chided, voice rumbling low in his chest, and Lan Xichen buried his warm face into his neck so he wouldn’t start laughing.

“A fever is just a fever. It is that time of the year,” Lan Xichen pointed out, uncaring of everything but the fact that his husband was finally in his arms again. “You didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“I wasn’t until next week,” Jiang Cheng gruffed, given that surprise was no doubt ruined now. Lan Xichen still smiled and pulled him in more, until Jiang Cheng was properly sitting down on the bed, though still twisted at an odd angle to compensate Lan Xichen’s clinging. Bracing himself with a hand, he didn’t seem to mind, either.

“Why are you early then?” Lan XIchen asked, wanting nothing more than to kiss him, but not wanting to get him sick either. He settled for just breathing him in as best he could with a clogging nose.

“Hanguang-jun sent me a message,” Jiang Cheng said, which Lan Xichen blinked at in surprise. Wangji had willingly told Jiang Cheng to come here, despite their still tense relationship, just so Lan Xichen could have Jiang Cheng’s comfort? “So I decided to come now instead of later.”

He made a mental note to thank his brother extensively, somehow, when he was well again.

“Now, I made you soup and you’d better eat it all,” Jiang Cheng said, back to business, and gently untangled himself from Lan Xichen before his clinging got more extensive, as it was prone to do after too much time apart. Grabbing up the tray, Lan Xichen caught the faintest whiff of spice and broth, something new, but also somehow familiar. He took the bowl with a soft smile of thanks.

When he noticed the root and block of meat, his heart swelled so much with love it was painful. “This is your sister’s soup, is it not?”

“A-jie always made it for me when I had a fever,” Jiang Cheng confirmed, eyes soft and sad in memory, but, thankfully, his tiny smile stayed on. “She made me eat it all too, before you try to pout your way out of it. I’m expecting no less.”

Lan Xichen chuckled and sipped the broth, eyes closing immediately at the wonderfully warm taste. It was more flavor than he was used to, with a hint of heat in the aftertaste, but it was not overpowering. Instead, he felt that faint spice clear the fog from his head while the thick broth soothed his throat, just as the tea had.

It was a complex dish, yet also terribly simple. If home had a flavor, he was certain this was it.

“It’s delicious,” he murmured, reaching out to take Jiang Cheng’s hand and squeeze it. “Thank you.”

“Thank a-jie for teaching me,” Jiang Cheng said to that and slowly squeezed his fingers back. “It’s the only soup I’ll ever make to help with sickness. Nothing else works.”

“I’d have to agree,” Lan Xichen murmured and freed his fingers just to cup Jiang Cheng’s face. He gave a little tug on his hair, hoping his husband would fold in, and smiled when Jiang Cheng obediently leaned in to press their foreheads together, just as he’d wanted. “She would be proud of you, Wanyin.”

His husband chuckled softly, sad but almost sweet, and covered Lan Xichen’s hand with his own.

“I truly hope so.”

Chapter Text

“That’s it, I’m fucking murdering him. Again.”

All things considered, Lan Xichen was actually rather impressed it’d taken the entirety of the Night Hunt for his husband to give into his homicidal urges, especially since Wei Wuxian and Wangji had been practically glued to each other at the hip - and mouths more often than not - from the very start of it. Even the buffering of Shizui, Jingyi, Jin Ling, and Wen Ning - and the actual danger - could only distract him so much before Wei Wuxian inevitably set him off.

He knew the wayward brothers were trying to find their way together again. This whole Night Hunt was a push for that very thing, courtesy of Jin Ling, and Lan Xichen felt confident that some progress had been made, even with that scowl taking over Jiang Cheng’s face. They were sorely out of step with one another still, out of practice with being brothers and that trust and ease they had to relearn, but Lan Xichen felt hope for them bloom seeing Jiang Cheng finally snap, not because of Wei Wuxian’s past deeds, but because he would not stop kissing Wangji when they were not fully out of danger. And that was good to see, no matter the pain it roused in his heart for his own lost sworn brothers, or the fury quickly sizzling over Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian was laughing at the sight of Jiang Cheng’s growing ire with the hysterical glee one would have poking a bear with a stick, practically climbing Wangji like a tree in delight, and Lan Xichen quickly stepped between them before Jiang Cheng could fully charge and make good on that threat. Laughing was still painful in the months after Jin Guangyao’s fall, but he felt the urge bubble up inside him before he could think to push it away. He needed calm to soothe his husband, not laughter, and the juniors were snickering enough for all of them at this point.

To steady himself, he focused on the fond sweetness Jiang Cheng had nested in his heart and smiled, finding his own calm and strength in it. “Wanyin.”

“Get out of the way before I murder you,” Jiang Cheng hissed through his teeth, Zidian crackling on his hand. It made Lan Xichen only step in closer, fingers cradling Jiang Cheng’s, soothing the weapon down, as well as making his husband remember to breathe. The urge to laugh was stronger now, especially as his bond to Zidian rang with petty fury, so childish and pure it honestly delighted him to feel it, and had to take a few breaths of his own, caught in painful mirth and the want to simply kiss this ridiculous man breathless, no matter their audience.

“Wanyin,” he murmured again, amused, and chuckled when Jiang Cheng begrudgingly met his eye, deflating already, but willing to give in to Lan Xichen’s calm. At least for now. He rewarded him with a slow, sweet kiss to his forehead. “Breathe.”

Jiang Cheng only managed about half a good breath before Wei Wuxian started up another ruckus. “Wait, whoa, hold on!” he gasped, looking betrayed, and pointed between the two of them in a series of rather pained-sounding noises. “You two? I -” Puffed cheeks now and a red face as he obviously grappled with the most important place to start. “Jiang Cheng! You yell at me for being shameless and here you are!”

Jiang Cheng scoffed back at that, hip cocked in total challenge. “I’m married to him, you idiot, I’m allowed!”

The silence after that was telling. Lan Xichen could finally understand Jiang Cheng’s constant need to smack a hand over his forehead in Wei Wuxian’s orbit. As it was, Wei Wuxian stared at Jiang Cheng with huge, disbelieving eyes, then Lan Xichen, and looked ready to start screaming. “You’re lying. You’re not! I’d know if you were!”

Jin Ling, ever ready to join Jiang Cheng’s side of things, gestured very pointedly to their sashes with an arched brow. “They’re literally wearing Jiangshi wedding bells.”

“Wow, you really are confident in everything, aren’t you? Even when you’re wrong,” Jingyi piped up, looking ready to start laughing all over again. Shizui shushed him almost by instinct, but was fighting down an exasperated smile of his own.

Wei Wuxian went about as red as his hair ribbon. “What - but… When?”

“Since I was five,” Jin Ling said helpfully, shaking his head. How he managed a straight face, Lan Xichen had no idea. “Are you sure you are the Yiling Patriarch? Scourge of the world? I thought you were supposed to be intelligent.”

“And I thought nephews were supposed to defend their uncles’ honor, not drag them down!” Wei Wuxian shrieked back, then resumed his climbing up Wangji. “Getting attached to a Lan was my thing! I did it first!”

“I did it better. Obviously,” Jiang Cheng scoffed and Lan Xichen couldn’t stop a huff of laughter that time, even if it felt ripped out of him. “Your point?”

Wei Wuxian sputtered, offended and extremely off-kilter. Seeing Jiang Cheng was on the high ground, he settled for glaring hotly at everyone else. “You all knew? And didn’t tell me!”

“Of course we knew,” Jingyi huffed, even as Wen Ning shrugged helplessly behind him and Shizui. “We were part of the wedding!” He grabbed Shizui’s hand with a wild grin, which Shizui answered with a blushing, but sweet smile. “We hid Zewu-jun’s wedding shoes!”

“My brother wasn’t even the bride? Jiang Cheng!” Wei Wuxian was wailing now, aghast, but Jiang Cheng just stuck his nose in the air, ready to defend that to the death, as always. Lan Xichen pulled him in close so he wouldn’t have to.

“I was happily the bride,” Lan Xichen murmured, because it was true enough. Even if Jiang Cheng had had enough family to be the bride and participate in the door games properly, Lan Xichen would still have been happy with the role he’d been given. He hadn’t been quite in love with Jiang Cheng that day, but it had become the foundation of it, hearing Jiang Cheng face the crowd’s tests during the door games, to the look on his face as he’d finally seen Lan Xichen all in red. The soft laughter they’d shared as Jiang Cheng searched for his wedding shoes. Being carried across the courtyard on Jiang Cheng’s back, smiling so hard he thought it’d fall clean off his face…

He leaned in to place another kiss on Jiang Cheng’s forehead, soothing his husband even further, and really, how could Wei Wuxian not see how utterly devoted Lan Xichen was to this beautiful, stubborn, prickly man?

“I am the master of hiding shoes,” Jingyi was saying once Lan Xichen remembered there was more to the world than the sweet light in Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “Which is a serious problem, because who will hide my wedding shoes when we marry?”

He asked this of Shizui, who promptly went as red as his father. Wei Wuxian’s focus snapped immediately over to them, whiplike and dangerous, but Jingyi was too far gone into his joke to notice. Not even Wen Ning edging out of the line of fire stopped him.

“I will, obviously,” Jin Ling said, like that wasn’t even in question, and looked far more determined about it than the joke really merited. “He’ll never be able to find them.”

“Absolutely not,” Jingyi smacked Jin Ling’s arm. “He’d never marry me if that happened!”

“As if. He’d marry you barefoot if he had to!”

The scene dissolved into chaos after that, with Jingyi refusing to accept Jin Ling’s prowess with hiding wedding shoes, to Wei Wuxian demanding the reason why Shizui had not told him he was engaged (even though he, in fact, very much wasn’t). Wangji stood watching it all with that slightly dazed look he got sometimes, like his happy ending was still sinking in, and Lan Xichen gently urged Jiang Cheng off the road and away from the scene before Jiang Cheng’s homicidal urges could return.

Wen Ning caught his eye as they went and gave a solemn nod - both a promise to watch over their crazy family, as well as a farewell for the night - and Lan Xichen felt comfortable enough slip away into the darkness knowing his loved ones were protected even without his watchful eye on them.

“I have not seen Wangji this happy in far too long,” Lan Xichen murmured once they’d made it onto a path and only the forest’s quiet surrounded them. It had been the brightest spot of good that had carried him through the past months, a promise that heartache was not the only ending. Love could, truly, conquer all.

Jiang Cheng snorted at that, still not a fan of Wangji even after so many years, but they’d formed a respect for one another and Lan Xichen could see it now, even before his husband gruffed out a soft, “I guess I won’t kill Wei Wuxian then. If dealing with his crazy makes your brother happy, then he’s welcome to him.”

Lan Xichen stole a kiss for that and took a moment just to breathe it all in, the warmth of the night, the feeling of Jiang Cheng’s smile against his lips. Ten years and counting and this man still made the music of his soul come alive in ways it never had before, nor never would for anyone else, of that he was certain. It was the magic he’d found in their union, built on trust and loyalty, and strengthened with love.

He let it strengthen him now, let it hold him steady and carry him, because Jiang Cheng had always done that for him when he needed it most. He’d carried him on their wedding day and hadn’t stopped since, and there were not nearly enough kisses in a single lifetime he could give to measure up to the gratitude he felt, but Lan Xichen was determined to try.

And by the soft laugh he felt against his mouth, his efforts were greatly appreciated.