Work Text:
Lan Wangji woke up to an empty room, and a cold and cloudy weather. It was the same with every other day for almost 2000 years.
Empty. Cold. Dark. Cloudy. Sad. Empty.
Empty.
Empty.
He went to work as always, he was sitting on his chair at 8.30 am. More punctual than a clock.
He was a lawyer now, for 5 years. Before that, he was a teacher. A doctor once and a farmer. A traveler for most, and a lover for all of his life.
A lover who lost his loved one. A lover who lost his other half. A lover who devoted his life to find the meaning of his own life.
A lover who is on search for 2000 years now.
It was Valentine's Day tomorrow, and it wasn't less painful than the other ones. On every special day like this one, Lan Wangji was feeling like his ribs want to kill him by squeezing his heart. But Valentine's Day was the worst. Because like a sick joke, it has the same date with his lover's death.
On February 14th, for tomorrow's date, his one and only love Wei Wuxian died.
Every year on this day, Lan Wangji was staying awake for the night. Wei Wuxian never answered to him playing the guqin but Lan Wangji never stopped trying, especially during the February 14th. Because he died that day, Lan Wangji hoped that Wei Wuxian's soul would be connected to the date and answer him.
He was so insisted on this because he never learned the reason why Wei Wuxian died. He only knew that one day the bright day turned to a dark night, that someone shot down his sun out of his blue sky.
He searched for Wei Wuxian for years. He looked at the bottom of that said cliff. His brother said that Wei Wuxian was killed by his puppets and fell down from the cliff. Some people said that he was killed by his brother Jiang Cheng, and fell down from the cliff. Some people said that he went mad from agony and jumped off of the cliff.
There were many rumors but they were all ending with a cliff. So Lan Wangji searched for him. Days and nights, weeks and months. Years. Centuries. He never stopped searching for Wei Wuxian. But he never found anything.
And he hated himself for 2000 years. He hated himself because he wasn't there with Wei Wuxian. He could've stopped his puppets. He could've stopped his brother. He could've stopped Wei Wuxian. Instead he was lying at his bed because of the whipping scars.
He hated himself so much that he couldn't see Wei Wuxian one last time.
But at the same time, he felt a selfish happiness. Maybe it was good that he didn't see Wei Wuxian's last moments. Because now, Lan Wangji was remembering him as the most beautiful, most mischievous, most happy person. He was remembering Wei Wuxian as if he was still a student in the Cloud Recesses. He was still remembering him as the playful youth. Yes he saw Wei Wuxian after he degenerated into demonic cultivation -which was very arguable for Lan Wangji- but Wei Wuxian still had that playful look in his eyes back then.
Lan Wangji held Wei Wuxian in his heart like this for years.
And again, like all the past Valentine's Day, when the clock strike to the midnight and it was officially February 14th, he took his guqin out and tried to communicate with Wei Wuxian all night. There was nothing as always.
At the morning of the Valentine's Day, Lan Wangji went to the work. There were dark circles under his eyes due to the lack of sleep and his eyes were red from lots of cryings.
Lan Wangji opened the door to his office and halted on his step. His lungs were screaming for some air but his whole body was frozen, he couldn't help it.
There was someone standing at the front of his desk. A tall man with black hair and black eyes. Lan Wangji could only see his side profile but he already knew.
He was Wei Wuxian.
Lan Wangji cursed to himself. He was probably seeing things out of lack of sleep. Or it was a dream and he was going to wake up in a minute. This happened a lot to Lan Wangji, every one of them caused him greater pain then the other. Seeing Wei Wuxian in his dreams were worse than not seeing him at all. The memories were not letting Lan Wangji to have a peaceful night.
Lan Wangji's hand was tightened around the doorknob and his fingers were whiter than the snow because of the force. He told himself to get it together and let the doorknob go. Lan Wangji's legs were about to give in but he managed to sat on his chair before raising his head and look at the person that's been standing here like a tree.
Lan Wangji raised his head. Their eyes locked in an instand and Lan Wangji swallowed his tears back. He was Wei Wuxian for sure. He was. Lan Wangji was looking at Wei Wuxian. The love of his life. The man he could never touched freely. The man he could never looked at lovingly. The man he could never kissed from his eyelids. Wei Wuxian was standing across his table with his head low and a pout on his face.
Lan Wangji clenched his fist under the table, the urge to jump on his feet and hug Wei Wuxian was so strong. But he needed to be sure that if Wei Wuxian had any memory from the past. So he calmed himself down -he was looking calm from outside, at least.
"What can I do for you?" Lan Wangji's voice cracked and Wei Wuxian looked at him doubtfully. "They told me that you're the best lawyer in the company. I need the best lawyer." Lan Wangji had to hold himself down from saying something like 'anything for you' and coughed to adjust his voice. "You can say that. What's the matter?"
With hearing this, Wei Wuxian made himself comfortable by sitting at the chair across Lan Wangji's table. "I'm being framed by some bad people." Lan Wangji couldn't help it, his lawyer mode was open. "What do you mean?" The man sighed. "My name is Wei Wuxian. Someone is killing people and trying to make me look like I'm the murderer."
Lan Wangji's mind stopped for a second. He didn't expect to hear something like this. "Why didn't you go to the police?" Wei Wuxian crossed his arms and leaned back to the chair. "Because they're the ones that coming after me. I'm not sure who's doing this but you know the other day's news? About a body being found at the lake?" Lan Wangji did remember actually. It was all over the news. A man who's not yet identified was found in a lake, killed by a blunt force trauma on his head. "They're trying to hold you accountable for this? Don't you have any alibi?"
Wei Wuxian shook his head. "They're saying that the man was killed 2 days ago and I was at home that night. I was alone. I don't have any alibi." Lan Wangji scratched his head. This was a hard case. "Any security cameras?" It was a no too. "How do you know that someone's coming after you?" Wei Wuxian's face darkened. Lan Wangji felt chills down on his spine. "Whoever that is, they're putting evidences from the murders at my door every 2 nights. It's been 3 times now and I couldn't catch the person. I didn't even see them. As if it's a shadow doing this." Lan Wangji looked at Wei Wuxian directly. He enjoyed the view without letting the other side noticing and then got up to his feet. "Let's see those evidences."
The evidences were... Small. Not a finger print, not a hair strand. There were just three blood drops in three little bottles. Lan Wangji took them and put in an evidence bag. "I'm one hundred percent sure that these are belong to the death people. But they could just spill these into your clothes and call the police, why are they putting them like this at your door?" Lan Wangji continued to observe the bottles while Wei Wuxian was looking at him. Lan Wangji felt this and his heart jumped in his chest with hope. "Do you need something?" Wei Wuxian shook his head. "No... I just feel like I know you from somewhere. You look familiar." Lan Wangji made a unrecognizable sound and turned his back to Wei Wuxian, not showing his teary eyes to him.
On the way to going back to the company, Lan Wangji talked to Wei Wuxian. "If one of these bottles are for that lake man, what are these two for? Did they kill two more people or will they kill two more people? This is really a detective's work, I loved it." Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji and laughed. Lan Wangji's steps stopped abruptly. He never thought of hearing this sound ever again in his life and now he was hearing it from this close. He had to clear his throat to not show his emotions. Wei Wuxian didn't notice anything and kept laughing lightly. "You should've been a detective then, why did you become a lawyer?"
Because for my whole life, I was a detective. I was a detective that looking for you. Looking for your whereabouts. Looking for what's left from you. I was so tired of being a detective who's on the search forever, so I decided to become a lawyer.
"I always loved arguments. Winning arguments, so I thought -why don't I give it a shot?" Wei Wuxian nodded to him thoughtfully. His lips were still curved. He clicked his tongue. "I really think that I know you from somewhere but I can't recall. This is bugging me. Were we going to the same high school maybe?" Lan Wangji smiled back. "I don't think so. I studied abroad." Wei Wuxian nodded again and kept walking in front of Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji was left behind for a moment, because he was busy looking at Wei Wuxian's back longingly. He missed Wei Wuxian so much for so many years but he still couldn't touch him. This was eating him alive.
When they went back to the company from Wei Wuxian's house, they were greeted by a box on Lan Wangji's desk. He cautiously went and opened the box, Wei Wuxian was right beside him. In the box, there were three more bottles filled with blood. Lan Wangji hurriedly closed the box back and looked at their surroundings to see if there's anybody watching them. Wei Wuxian was speechless against this box move. "What the hell? They're following me." Lan Wangji pulled the little bottles out and saw a piece of paper under them. Lan Wangji took it and opened. "Curiosity kills the cat. But cats have 9 lives, so I will give you 9 hours. Find the real murderer, or Wei Wuxian's finger prints and clothes dipped in his victims bloods are going to the police. Tick tock."
Wei Wuxian couldn't even make a sound. He looked at Lan Wangji. "What do we do now?" Lan Wangji took his phone out. "I will call someone I know."
Someone he knew was actually Lan Xichen. But to this day, Lan Wangji was the only person who never died so he was the only person who remembers everything. Lan Xichen died and borned again numerous times, and in his every life, Lan Wangji was there one way or another. Like the past times, Lan Wangji managed to meet with Lan Xichen again. He was a police officer now.
"Lan Xichen? Yes, it's Lan Wangji. I need you to look for some blood samples. Yes, it's urgent. And please keep them as a secret. These are probably from dead people. I'm working on something, please don't tell anyone. I will take the samples to you in 10 minutes. See you."
Lan Wangji closed the phone and felt Wei Wuxian's eyes on himself. "What?" Wei Wuxian squinted at him. "Lan Xichen? Lan Wangji... I can feel my brain burning. I KNOW you guys. I do." Lan Wangji laughed awkwardly and whispered to himself. "I hope you can find out." Wei Wuxian was still lost in his thoughts so he didn't hear Lan Wangji.
Lan Wangji never thought of telling Wei Wuxian who he was because Wei Wuxian was an ordinary person with no memories of his past life now. If he were to say something to Wei Wuxian, Wei Wuxian would probably think that he was a freak and would leave Lan Wangji. Again. He wasn't ready for this. So he kept his mouth shut.
An hour and a half later, half of the blood samples' owners were found. One of them was indeed belong to that man found in the lake, the samples were a match but there was still no identity. And for the others, there were no notices about them on the police's data. Lan Wangji took the papers. "Let's start with these."
When they arrived at the first house, the first 2 hours of their time was passed. Wei Wuxian was obviously nervous but his eyes were looking sharp as ever. Lan Wangji smiled in his heart. Wei Wuxian was always fierce.
They knocked on the door but instead of someone opening it for them, the door opened by itself. Lan Wangji stopped on his track, Wei Wuxian was tensed beside him too. They went inside with small steps. The house was a mess. And it was clear that there was no one. Lan Wangji relaxed and started to look through the stuffs in the house. Some papers and some clothes. Furniture was so old. Lan Wangji decided to look at the other rooms but Wei Wuxian's voice stopped him. "Lan Wangji?" Wei Wuxian was calling him by his name. Lan Wangji was feeling everything at once today. "Yes?" Lan Wangji waited for Wei Wuxian to answer him but there was no sound. His heart dropped on his knees out of fear and he rushed to the room that Wei Wuxian was in.
Wei Wuxian was standing still, there was a photo in his hands. And his hands were shaking. Lan Wangji went to his side and touched his arm. "What's going on?" Wei Wuxian raised his eyes from the photo. "Why am I in a photo from pretty much 100 years ago?"
Lan Wangji took the photo from Wei Wuxian to see. The first he noticed was Wei Wuxian. He was older in that photo and there were other people... Jiang Cheng.
Lan Wangji's eyes widened. He didn't think of seeing this face again. He didn't think that Jiang Cheng would reincarnate too. Lan Wangji was seeing Jiang Cheng as the villain of his story. Because there was a possibility that he was the one killed Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji gathered all his strength to not crumble the photo.
And he was also surprised to see Wei Wuxian in the photo because that meant he couldn't find Wei Wuxian 100 years ago. His heart ached with disappointment.
Wei Wuxian was still not moved from where he was and he was waiting for answers. Yet Lan Wangji couldn't tell him anything. "I know this person. He is... He is Jiang Cheng. I know him." After saying this, Wei Wuxian dropped on his knees. He was holding his chest as if his heart was trying to escape. When he talked, his voice was so strained with pain that Lan Wangji couldn't believe his ears. "It hurts... It hurts so much. I can't breathe." Lan Wangji held Wei Wuxian by his shoulders. Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji. He was crying from the pain he was feeling. "What is this? Am I dying? Heart attack?" Lan Wangji sat down with Wei Wuxian and put his head onto his lap, stroked his hair to calm him. "No, you're not dying. You're remembering."
Wei Wuxian calmed down in 20 minutes and they left there without talking. The house was empty, there was nothing to find. And there was nothing to talk because Wei Wuxian had to figure things out by himself.
They went to every location they have with them but found nothing. Now an hour was left and they were in Lan Wangji's house. Lan Wangji was walking back and forth with nervousness while Wei Wuxian was sitting with his head in his hands. The only person they haven't looked into was the person who was found in the lake and they still hadn't heard from Lan Xichen.
It was half an hour left from the 9 hours.
Lan Xichen called Lan Wangji. "It's Nie Mingjue." Lan Wangji closed the phone to the face of his old brother. It was Jin Guangyao. The real killer was Jin Guangyao.
And the person who left these blood samples was not the murderer and he was not trying to put the blame on Wei Wuxian. He was trying to warn him.
He was Nie Huaisang.
The things happened 2000 years ago was happening again.
After Wei Wuxian, Nie Mingjue died from qi deviation and later they found out that the reason behind Nie Mingjue's death was not only qi deviation but Jin Guangyao. And it was revealed by Nie Mingjue's brother, Nie Huaisang. During that time, Jin Guangyao was indeed trying to put the blame on others -indirectly to Lan Xichen by saying that he learned to play guqin that supposed to calm Nie Mingjue down from him. But Nie Huaisang wasn't having that, and he showed everyone that Nie Mingjue was murdered by Jin Guangyao.
Now it was happening again. The man in the lake was Nie Mingjue. He was killed by Jin Guangyao. And this fact was revealed by Nie Huaisang.
But what was the reason for Jin Guangyao to frame Wei Wuxian?
"Wei Wuxian, do you know someone named Jin Guangyao?" Wei Wuxian turned to look at him. "I do, actually. He was my classmate back in the collage. We weren't in good terms, I caught him stealing and told the police."
Lan Wangji immediately called Lan Xichen back. "It's Jin Guangyao. Trust me and take him in. He's the murderer."
Lan Wangji put his phone down and turned his face to Wei Wuxian. He was staring at Lan Wangji. "Who's the man in the lake? And is Jin Guangyao the murderer?" Lan Wangji inhaled. "Nie Mingjue. And yes, the murderer is Jin Guangyao." Wei Wuxian closed his eyes. "I know these names too. I never thought of Jin Guangyao back then but now it sounds strange. Everything is familiar but I don't know anything! I'm gonna lose my mind! And you, Lan Wangji, look like you know something -even everything. But you're not opening your mouth. What the hell is going on?!" Lan Wangji couldn't find the right words. How he was supposed to say something like that to someone? Oh, let me explain. You're actually the man I loved for 2000 years and it looks like you reincarnated now. And yes I still love you and would like to kiss you. Was there a way to say this?
So instead of explaining, Lan Wangji left Wei Wuxian in the living room and went to the kitchen to prepare some tea. He needed to distract himself while Wei Wuxian needed some time alone.
The alone time didn't take long. In 5 minutes, there was a banging sound came from the other room. Lan Wangji ran to the living room to see what was it but Wei Wuxian wasn't there. He checked every room, then went to his bedroom.
Wei Wuxian was sitting on the floor with Lan Wangji's guqin in front of him. The banging sound probably came from guqin, when it fell down to the floor. The piece of cloth on it was opened and the strings were showing. Wei Wuxian's fingers were touching the strings, his head was bowed.
Lan Wangji walked closer to Wei Wuxian and crouched down across to him. Wei Wuxian didn't raise his eyes from guqin, he was still touching it lightly, as if he was stroking a new born baby's face. Afraid of hurting.
They stayed like that for a while. Lan Wangji didn't say a word. He was both scared and hopeful. If he would say something and Wei Wuxian wouldn't remember anything, it would crush Lan Wangji. So he stayed silent.
Then Wei Wuxian raised his head. His eyes were red from crying, the tears were still rolling down on his cheeks. He looked at Lan Wangji's eyes. "You remember?"
Lan Wangji closed his eyes to prevent the tears from falling but it was too late. He could only nod his head. Before he stopped nodding, Lan Wangji felt a pair of arms around his neck. And a face.
Wei Wuxian hugged him tightly and sobbed into Lan Wangji's chest. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?! I could've remember everything this morning!" Lan Wangji couldn't say a word, his voice was lost. He was crying so hard that he thought he would die.
Lan Wangji's arms were around Wei Wuxian too, he held Wei Wuxian's head like a baby, took him closer to his body. He wanted to touch every bit of him, he wanted to smell him, he wanted to breath him in.
They stayed like this for almost 20 minutes, it took them so much more to calm down. When Lan Wangji felt like he could talk again, he opened his mouth. "Do you really remember everything?" Wei Wuxian nodded. "Everything." Lan Wangji felt the tears coming back but fought with it. "I'm sorry." Wei Wuxian looked at him with wide eyes. "Why? You didn't do anything!" Lan Wangji couldn't look at Wei Wuxian. "It's because I didn't do anything. I could've stopped... It. Before happening. I wasn't there." Wei Wuxian held Lan Wangji's hand and stroked his thumb. "No, it isn't your fault. It was bound to happen. You couldn't do anything even if you were there. But you were here." Wei Wuxian took Lan Wangji's hand and put it on his chest, right over where his heart was. "You were always here. I'm sorry that it took me so long. You know that I'm an oblivious idio-"
Lan Wangji didn't let Wei Wuxian finish his words. He stopped him with his lips. "2000 years." Wei Wuxian was stunned. Lan Wangji didn't stop and kissed him again. "2000 years!" Wei Wuxian bowed his head down sadly. "I'm sorry. I wish I remembered before. I'm so sorry." Lan Wangji held Wei Wuxian's head and squeezed his cheeks. "I will kiss you 2000 times to make up for it." Wei Wuxian's eyes widened. "Lan Zhan-"
He got interrupted again by the kiss.
"Lan Zhan wait. We saw Jiang Cheng's photo. Do you think he's alive too? What about Jiang Yanli?" Lan Wangji felt the vein on his forehead about to pop out but he remained calm. "I don't think so. The photo was so old. But maybe he reincarnates again? You can look for them." Wei Wuxian nodded thoughtfully but the questions were not finished. "Then what about that boy who died? He lived in that house. Do you think he's my nephew or something?" Lan Wangji thought about it for a moment. His arms were still wrapped around Wei Wuxian's waist. "It's probably not. But maybe your nephew's son? Nephew's son's son? We can look for it too. I'm a lawyer, you know. I can look for anything." Lan Wangji kissed him again to shut him up but Wei Wuxian was preparing to talk again. Lan Wangji took himself back a little to look at Wei Wuxian from a distance. "Are you kidding me?" Wei Wuxian had to hold himself from laughing to not piss Lan Wangji off. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
This time, Wei Wuxian took the initiative to kiss Lan Wangji.
While they were kissing and touching each other, water on the kettle that Lan Wangji was boiling for the tea was long gone.
They were kissing as if trying to spend that 2000 kisses in one night.
Lan Wangji never thought that it was enough kissing, or that he's tired and wants to sleep. He took Wei Wuxian to his bed and they kept touching each other. It was a longing worth of thousands of years for Lan Wangji. And it was a darkness worth of thousands of years for Wei Wuxian. Even if they would never let each other go for another 2000 years, they wouldn't find it enough.
Finally, Wei Wuxian fell asleep between Lan Wangji's arms. His face was turned to Lan Wangji, their breaths were intermingling.
Lan Wangji smiled through the tears and touched Wei Wuxian's face. Everything was like a dream to him and Lan Wangji was fearing to wake up in a cold bed again. Even though he tried to stay awake for the night, he fell asleep.
The next morning, when he woke up he immediately searched for Wei Wuxian.
There was no one in the bed.
Lan Wangji felt the world collapsing onto his head, his vision shrank. He started crying. Was everything a dream again? He hated it with all of his heart. But the next minute, the door of his room opened.
It was Wei Wuxian.
Lan Wangji felt so relieved that he started to cry harder. Seeing him like that, Wei Wuxian slapped himself mentally. He went to the bed and hugged Lan Wangji close to his chest, tried to calm him down. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm here. I really am here. It's okay."
Lan Wangji held Wei Wuxian's hand till he calmed down. Then sat straight and stared at Wei Wuxian. He reached out to him and touched Wei Wuxian's cheek. "Oh. Thank god. You're real."
Lan Wangji called the work and said that he was sick, his hoarse voice helped his cover. He needed to be with Wei Wuxian till he make himself believe that Wei Wuxian wasn't going anywhere.
They spent their day in bed, hugging each other and talking. Watching their faces and remembering the features. They slept and woke up together during the day. And with every waking up, Lan Wangji believed more that Wei Wuxian wasn't going anywhere.
It was the best Valentine's Day ever.