Chapter Text
Chapter One: It’s a Time Bomb
“Only you, Wei Wuxian, would forget about a fucking time bomb.” Jiang Cheng grouched as he moved yet another branch out of his way. His irritation only grew as he saw Lan Wangji carefully part the branches for his precious husband.
“He’s not a fucking child. Wei Wuxian can get through without your codiling." He directed the remark to Lan Wangji. His ire only grew at the Second Jade’s lack of response. His brother became even more smug. He could feel it radiating off of the annoying man. He grit his teeth to keep his further comments to himself.
“But my Lan Zhan is so great. He won’t let a single branch scratch me.” The annoying, sing song voice of his brother grated his ears. How utterly shameless of the happy couple.
“Mn.” The near-silent Lan responded.
“No one asked you to come, Jiang Cheng. We’re perfectly capable of handling this on our own.” Wei Wuxian looked over at Lan Wangji in a way that made Jiang Cheng's skin crawl. It was too obvious what that look entailed and unabashedly inappropriate for people to look at each other that way in other’s company.
“Thi-this is the exact reason I came! You two going back to the Burial Mounds together, I don’t trust it. You’d get caught up in something else you just remembered and who knows when you would get back this very important matter?"
His brother doesn’t respond to the gentle chiding, just grins at his husband and for once is blessedly silent. Suspiciously silent. As the silence stretched, he didn’t dare look at the pair. He knew Lan Wangji’s ears would be at least pink and his brother’s grin too flirtatious for polite company.
He knew it. Those two couldn’t be trusted to do anything meaningful by themselves.
“Tsk. Remember there are other people in the world. Idiots.”
If he didn't need his eyes to avoid the overgrown foliage, he'd have long buried his head in his hands. How does anyone put up this behavior? He felt for the Gusu sect. This must be an everyday occurance to them. No wonder Lan Qiran had seemed to age more these last couple of years. He felt years add onto his own life just being around the shameless couple for mere hours.
“Awh, I love you too A-Cheng.” His brother knew no boundaries. A shiver passed over him hearing the long unspoken endearment.
“Who are you calling A-Cheng? Call me that again and I’ll break your legs.” Irritation giving way to anger. That was a line Wei Wuxian should not cross. Not if he wanted to remain whole and hale. And to not see a confrontation between himself and Lan Wangji.
“Lan Zhan! Save me from the bad tempered grouch.” Wei WuXian coyly called out and used the Lan as a wall to separate the purple sect leader from the demonic cultivator.
The Lan had the audacity to give into the ploy, stepping intimidatingly between the two.
Curse the Lan height. Jiang Cheng didn’t mind fighting an opponent of any size, but when getting a glaring match with a statue, he’d rather not strain his neck.
“Wei Ying, behave.” Good. If the only good thing to come out of their relationship, it was there was now a person who could get Wei Wuxian to have a modicum of appropriate behavior, Jiang Cheng would take it.
“Fiiinnnne. We’re here anyway.”
Time flew when you could barely keep your eyes open and you were running purely on an anger induced adrenaline rush.
“Let’s get this over with already. I can’t believe you’ve been back for two years and this was an afterthought. This should have been one of those things you instantly remembered because of how dangerous it is, you deranged tinkerer. “
“Genius, thank you very much. I invent a lot of things. It slipped my mind. Do you remember what you did last week?”
“I do. Because not everyone is cursed with such a short memory. I’d remember working on something that can cut through the fabric of time.” The emphasis on his brother’s poor memory could not be overstated. It was understated. If someone were to talk about how bad his memory was for days, it would still be understated.
How can someone so terribly smart, be so terribly minded? The world may only spin on these days because the fastidious Lan next to the infuriating man, kept his things organized and tidy. Lan Wangji had made it his personal mission to distribute his brother’s inventions to the world. He saw it as his duty to emphasize to the world how much Wei WuXian gave back to the world.
“Okay, it should be near the back of the cave. I never let A-yuan back there because of things like this. Too dangerous for a child to handle.”
“Too dangerous for anyone to handle.”
“Mn. Dangerous.”
The only solidarity between the Second Lan brother and Jiang Cheng was the absolute fury towards Wei Wuxian’s complete lack of self preservation. His darling brother would never dare endanger another soul in his experimentation, but his own life was fine to dangle in the waiting hands of fate.
His brother’s death wish had been fulfilled once. It would be a long time before Jiang Cheng would let it happen again.
“It was perfectly fine. I used the time alignment talisman. It kept anything from going too wild. A few hours may have been a bit blurry, but nothing to be concerned about.”
“How did everyone even miss this going through your artifacts anyway? All those cultivators and not one of them noticed it?”
“I never thought much of the cultivator world, and this just proves me right. They only looked for the things related directly to demonic cultivation. The research into time was much more along the lines of spiritual studies. It most likely looked too similar to a cleansing ritual, I modeled it after such, and they didn’t bother to check.
See these three characters? You find them in any cleansing ritual. I incorporated them to stay away from a tainted past, it wouldn’t help accomplish my goal.”
“What was your goal?”
“It doesn’t matter now.” The sorrowful look of a man haunted by his past, is a familiar sight to see on his brother. It was a look he seldomly held these days and one Jiang Cheng did not relish seeing take hold of his brother.
“Well, let’s just dispose of it and get this over. Some people have actual work to do.”
“Yes, yes. Alright.I need both of you to go to the other sides and form a triangle with me. We have to simultaneously destroy this array or it may have some nasty side effects.”
"And you said you didn't need me." His self-satisfied tone reserved for proving his brother wrong was one of his favorite tones to use. It didn’t make up a sliver of payback for all the times that Jiang Cheng had heard Wei Wuxian use his own.
"I can adapt to changes, unlike others. It's one of my best traits." Silence and a pointed look to Lan Wangji was all Jiang Cheng needed to know about the shameless exchange.
"Okay, you two are in position. On the count of three.
One. Two. Thr-WAIT.”
It was too late. The other two cultivators had already started to get rid of the lines and as they did, a bright light erupted. Wei Wuxian tried to catch up with their movements, but he was too slow. The light grew until he couldn’t see anymore and had to cover his eyes.
When he could finally see again, he was the only one in the cave.
“Damn.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jiang Cheng slowly woke up and took in his surroundings. A Lan laid too close to his side. He felt the strain in his bones.
“Was I your fucking cushion?”
“Mn.”
“No, I’m not your husband. I don’t have time to decipher your monosyllable Lan speak.”
“Yes. We fell hard. I fell on you.” Finally, full sentences.
In a weird way it made sense those two were together. The only person that could stand to be around a persistent talker like Wei Wuxian, would have to be someone that didn’t have much to say.
“Where did we land?”
“When.”
“Right. Fuck."
Wei WuXian said it only lasted a few hours, right?”
“Mn.” That was a quick digression of word use.
“Let’s go find out where and when we are. This forest is strange to me.” With a nod of assent, the two followed the sounds of a town’s everyday life.
Together, the two came across a village with a long unused symbol. Jiang Cheng froze before his face was overcome with hatred. Lan Wangji was in a similar stoic state.
The sect symbol stood in the middle of town. Ordained all the official public spaces and was infuriatingly present on the resident’s attire.
“Fuck. I’m stuck in the past with Ice Jade Lan Wangji and Wen Ruohan is still alive? Fuck this.”
With that last statement, Jiang Cheng turned to find the closest establishment that sold alcohol. If he wasn't drunk by lunch, it would be too late. The white clad cultivator followed.